§ MR. SEXTONasked the Secretary to the Treasury, If it is the practice of the Irish Board of Works, in the case of any occupier of land who had obtained a loan of money from the Board, to proceed against him or his sureties if he allowed the prescribed repayments to fall more than six months into arrear; and why, in the case of the owners of land who are sureties for the repayment of the loan of £100,000 by the Irish Board of Works to the Sligo, Leitrim, and Northern Counties Railway Company, the Board have allowed arrears, now standing at a total of £25,000, to go on accumulating for years without taking any step to recover?
§ MR. COURTNEYI think we have carried leniency to the utmost extreme in the case of these gentlemen. But it must be recollected that, unlike borrowers under the Land Acts, they have received no value for their money; that there were unavoidable delays in the completion of the railway; and that the guarantee was given, partly at least, in the public interest. The debt for which these gentlemen are responsible now amounts to £15,000; ever since it began to accrue we have been pressing them for payment; but our patience has now reached a limit, and unless a substantial payment is made before the 1st of January next stringent measures will be taken against them.