§ COLONEL KING-HARMANasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the Local Government Board, by letter, directed the returning officer of the Edenderry Union to disallow, at the elections held last March, the votes of all persons who owed arrears of seed rate, and specified some 97 of these persons by name; and, whether, in view of a new election now about to be held, they have written to him to allow these same persons votes, although they still owe these arrears; if so, why have they decided to allow these votes, in opposition to their own ruling of last March, in opposition to the ruling of the Court of Queen's Bench, and to his repeated statements that seed rate was a part of the poor rate, and anyone owing arrears of seed rate was disqualified from voting?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER) (for Mr. TREVELYAN)There is no discrepancy between the instructions of the Local Government Board on the occasions referred to. The first related to seed rate made and assessed upon the ratepayer; but the latter referred to seed rate not made or assessed upon the ratepayer, but for which he became liable as a subsequent occupier. The non-payment of a seed rate has the same effect in depriving a ratepayer of his right to vote as the non-payment of the poor rate; and, therefore, the deprivation only arises in the case of rates for which the voter was originally liable by reason of the rate having been assessed upon himself.