§ MR. GRAYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is a fact that the Board of Guardians of the Dungarvan Union have proposed to retire rather than strike the rate submitted by the clerk as necessary to meet the year's expenditure; whether it is a fact that the gross valuation of one of the divisions of the Union, Mount Stuart, is £300, and that the cost of maintaining a single pauper for one year would entail on this division a rating of 9d. in the pound; and, whether, having regard to facts such as these, he would consider the propriety of introducing next year a Union Eating Bill?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe Guardians did at first object to strike the required rate; but they have 344 since made it. The Electoral Division mentioned is valued at £322, and the rating for the maintenance of a pauper would be 7½d. on the valuation. As a matter of fact, however, the latest official Returns show that during a period of 12 months only one pauper chargeable to this division was relieved in the workhouse, and that for only a portion of the year. The circumstances of the division, would, therefore, not appear to strengthen the case for Union rating, but the reverse.
§ MR. GRAYobserved that the right hon. Gentleman had not replied whether it was in contemplation, in accordance with the promise held out by the right hon. Gentleman's Predecessor, to introduce a Union Rating Bill.
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANsaid, he could not at present reply more fully to the Question than he had done.