§ MR. SEXTONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether any communications have been made to him, or to the Irish Local Government Board, with a view to causing a surcharge to be made against Guardians of the Poor in the Union of Tulla, County Clare, in respect of out-door relief granted by the Board of that Union early in the present year, at the rate of six shillings per head per week, to tenants evicted from their holdings on an estate at Kiltannon; whether it is a fact that the President of the English Local Government Board has lately issued instructions that the Circular of the Poor Law Auditor to the Metropolitan Guardians, fixing the rate of maintenance of pauper children in Catholic schools at four shillings per week per head should be forthwith cancelled, and the sum of six shillings substituted; the money to be payable to the Guardians from the Common Poor Fund; also whether the St. Pancras Guardians unanimously voted the six shilling rate at a recent meeting; and, whether the Irish Execu- 1112 tive will take steps to ensure that no charge shall be made against individual members of the Tulla Board of Guardians, in respect of the voting by their Board, to adults and others, evicted from their farms, and wholly deprived of their means of living, of a sum not larger than that allowed by the English Local Government Board for the maintenance of pauper children?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe Local Government Board in Dublin have received complaints as to alleged excessive expenditure on out-door relief in the Tulla Union. They point out that if the ratepayers of the Union consider that there has been illegal or exorbitant expenditure in the cases referred to, it is open to them to bring the matter before the Auditor. The Local Government Board, however, have no power to cause a surcharge to be made. The 95th section of the Irish Poor Relief Act leaves the question of disallowance or deduction entirely in the hands of the Auditor; and the Board would have no power whatever to limit the charge which may be made by an Auditor against a Guardian or Guardians in respect of illegal or exorbitant relief granted by them. With regard to the proceedings of the English Local Government Board, I have ascertained from that Department that the Board did not issue any such instructions as those referred to. The Local Government Board have, under an Act passed this Session, sanctioned the sum of 6s. a-week as the payment which may be made in respect of any pauper child sent to a Metropolitan Catholic certified school by the Guardians; and in the case of the St. Pancras Guardians they have resolved to pay 6s. a-week in respect of each child so sent.