HC Deb 19 June 1884 vol 289 cc801-2
MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOE

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that, at the meeting of the Board of Guardians of Mountmellick Union on the 17th May last, the following Resolution was proposed and seconded, and that the Chairman, Colonel H. D. Garden, refused to receive it, or put it to the Board, viz.:— That the attention of the Local Government Board he called to the following facts:— That Mr. Mathew S. Cassan, prior to the last election of Guardians in Mountmelliek Union, lodged a claim to vote out of property situated in Kylecolmanbane electoral division as owner of said property, and voting papers were issued to him on the strength of said claim. At the scrutiny of votes, Documents lodged in the Court of Lunacy were produced and submitted to the returning officer, in which Documents Mathew S. Cassan declared that he had no right, title, or interest in said property, that he was virtually and in reality a pauper; The returning officer, on perusal of said Documents, disallowed the votes of the said M. S. Cassan; That the Statement of Claim made by Mathew S. Cassan appears to be knowingly and wilfully untrue, and in direct contravention of the law; We call on the Local Government Board to hold a full inquiry into same, so that proceedings may be taken against Mathew S. Cassan. under Section 12 of General Order dated 26th January 1852, in order that he and others may be deterred from making false claims in future, and so interfering with the purity of elections; whether the Chairman was acting within his right in refusing to put the Resolution; and, whether he will cause an inquiry to be held by the Local Government Board into the conduct of this exofficio Guardian?

MR. TREVELYAN

I am informed that at the meeting of the Mountmellick Board of Guardians, a Resolution as quoted was proposed and seconded, and that the Chairman (Colonel Garden) refused to put it. He did so because he thought it was the duty of the Returning Officer, and not of the Board of Guardians, to deal with the matter referred to in the Resolution. The Local Government Board think that Colonel Garden would have been right in putting the Resolution; but there is no reason to suppose that he did not act bonâ fide, and according to his judgment in declining to do so, and I see no ground upon which I could cause an inquiry to be instituted by the Local Government Board as suggested.