§ MR. CALLANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to certain proceedings at the Monaghan Board of Guardians on the 30th of April, May 7th and 21st, and the correspondence between Mr. MacAleese, the proprietor of the "People's Advocate," and the Local Government Board, Ireland, with reference to the exclusion of the reporter of that journal from the board room of the Monaghan Board of Guardians, whilst the other two local being Tory journals are admitted to report the proceedings thereat, and the refusal of a Mr. Jesse Lloyd, the chairman presiding on the 30th of April, to receive the following notice of motion:—
I beg to give notice, that I will move on this day month, that the resolution passed by this Board on the 1st May 1878, excluding the representative of the 'People's Advocate' from the meetings, while the reporters of the other local papers are admitted, be rescinded, as unworthy of this or any other Board of Guardians in Ireland;whether it is in the power of a Board of Guardians, where meetings are open to the Press, nevertheless to admit only 1432 certain Tory journals, and exclude the representatives of a Liberal journal; if a chairman of a Board of Guardians can of himself refuse to receive a notice of motion admittedly legal, and within the rights of any individual guardian to propose, and so prevent any subject to which he may object from being formally brought before the Board; and, whether a clerk of the peace, who is clerk to the magistrates, and from the nature of his office incapable of acting as a magistrate, is nevertheless legally qualified to act as an ex officio Poor Law Guardian?
§ MR. J. LOWTHER, in reply, said, his attention had been called to the matter, and he understood that the question of the admission or exclusion of any person, whether a representative of the Press or otherwise, rested entirely with the Board of Guardians itself, and was not in any way within the jurisdiction of the Local Government Board. As to the power of the Chairman of the Board of Guardians of himself to refuse to receive a notice of motion, he (Mr. J. Lowther) apprehended that he had no such power. However, he understood that a notice of motion identical in character with the one referred to in the Question was brought before a meeting of the Guardians specially summoned for the purpose, and it was rejected by a majority. As to the last part of the Question, that related to a legal point upon which he did not feel justified in expressing an opinion; but perhaps the hon. Gentleman would put the Question to his right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General for Ireland.
§ MR. CALLANSir, I beg to give Notice that to-morrow I shall ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, Whether a clerk of the peace who is clerk to the magistrates, and from the nature of his office incapable of acting as a magistrate, is nevertheless legally qualified to act as an ex officio Poor Law Guardian, referring specially to the 13th section of the County Officers (Ireland) Act of 1877?