QUESTION. (Hansard, 25 November 1867)

§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTON

replied, that his attention had been drawn for some time past to the state of the neighbourhood of the Curragh Camp, and he was sorry to say that his noble Friend had not used too strong an expression in designating it as wretched. He must, however, remind the noble Lord that the powers of the War Office at the Curragh were confined to the limits of the camp, and that it was for the local authorities to consider the condition of the population beyond those limits. The powers conferred by the Act referred to in the Question were not very well adapted to the condition of the Irish police, and it was therefore his intention in the course of the Session to ask the House to agree to an alteration of the Act, so as to enable the Irish Commissioners of police to exercise the same powers as were now exercised by the English Commissioners. The Contagious Diseases Act had not been applied to the Curragh because there was no hospital there. Great difficulty had been experienced in procuring a site for the necessary buildings; but through the liberality of the Duke of Leinster that difficulty had been now overcome, and it was hoped that an infirmary or hospital would be erected as soon as possible. With regard to the second part of the Question, he would remark that the Act was already in operation at Aldershot, where there was a hospital, and that hospitals were also in course of erection at Shorncliffe and Colchester. Until the result of this trial of the Act had been ascertained, he was not prepared to ask Parliament to go to the expense of extending its provisions to all camps and garrisons and sea-port towns in the United Kingdom.