§ MR. CHARLES LEWISasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether the reduction from £80 to £45 recently made by the Treasury in the salary fixed in 1874 to be paid to the clerk of the peace for the county of Londonderry in respect of his services under the Land Act of 1870 has been made with the knowledge and concurrence of the Lord Lieutenant or Lord Chancellor of Ireland; and, if he will lay upon the Table any Correspondence between the Treasury and the Irish Executive upon the subject of that and similar reductions?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHSir, this reduction has been made in accordance with the general arrangement on the subject which was arrived at in 1874 by the Treasury, with the concurrence of the Irish Government. This arrangement was to fix the salary for a term of three years on the average number of days occupied in the work during the three preceding years, allowing £3 3s. a-day for each day's attendance at land sessions, whether business was done or not; and a certain addition for office expenses. On this basis the salary of the clerk of the peace for county Londonderry was fixed at £66 3s. for salary and £13 17s. for office expenses, making a total of £80. But when, in the present year, the time came to revise these salaries, it was found that in the three years since 1874 the business had so much decreased, as compared with the three years before 1874, that the salary, calculated on the same basis, must be reduced to £45. I do not think 1329 the correspondence would give any more information than that which I have stated to the House, and therefore I do not propose to lay it on the Table.