§ MR. A. M. SULLIVAN (for Mr. T. D. SULLIVAN)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether it is a fact that the Treasury have declined to sanction an additional loan of £100 to the Board of Guardians of the Athlone Union, to complete certain sanitary works in the town of Moate, on the special terms sanctioned by the Act 43 Vic. c. 4, although said loan has been recommended by the Local Government Board and the Board of Works; and, whether, having regard to the object for which the work was undertaken, namely, to provide employment for the poor in a distressed district, and the special circumstances which caused the application to be made subsequent to the 29th February last, the limit fixed for applications by the Board of Works, namely, that the estimate of the cost 960 was insufficient, he will recommend the Treasury to accede to the application of the Board of Guardians and grant the additional loan on the same terms as the £300 already granted for said works?
§ LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISH,in reply, said, he had to state, in answer to the Question of the hon. and learned Member, that they had direct information that the loan in question was not referred to or recommended by the Board of Works, but it was recommended on the supposition that, being merely supplementary to a loan applied for and granted previously, it might be regarded as a part of that loan and not as a new application. The question was referred to the Board of Works in Ireland, and they gave an opinion that any supplementary application should have been made before the 29th of February, and that, consequently, a loan could not be sanctioned under the Relief of Distress Act. He had, therefore, no legal power to recommend an additional loan.