§ MR. SEXTONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, "Whether he is aware that the Paving and Lighting Committee and the Cleansing Committee of the Dublin Corporation have been brought to a dead-lock for want of funds, owing to the failure of the Collector General to make an adequate collection of the Improvement Rate within the present year; whether the amount collected in respect of the said rate, from the opening of this year to the 24th ultimo, has been less, by £1,500, than the amount collected in the corresponding period of last year, though the rate for the present year is higher by twopence in the pound; whether, in view of the fact that instalments of principal and interest in repayment of loans, amounting to £6,697, were duo and payable to the Board of Works on the 1st instant, the Secretary of the Paving and Lighting Committee wrote, on the 17th ultimo, to the Collector General, pointing out that the Committee were deeply in debt to their several contractors, and that, unless there was a great improvement at once in the collection of the rates, the various Committees would be unable to meet their engagements; whether the Collector General replied that the time of the collectors had been much occupied this year with the Poor Law elections, and the investigation of claims served; and, what steps the Government will take, by increasing the staff of the Collector General, or otherwise, to enable the Corporation of Dublin, by adequate collection of its rates, to satisfy its engagements, and what measures will be adopted to secure the duo discharge of duties connected with the registration of voters?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe Collector General informs me that, allowing for the difference of the rate, 18 his collection in Dublin this year, on the 24th of April, was behind that of last year by some £2,500, being about one week's collection at this time, the principal reason being as stated in the Question; but he is not aware that the severe results referred to have followed from this state of facts. The sum mentioned as due by the Paving and Lighting Committee was £5,618, not £6,697; and between the 17th of April and the 1st instant £6,400 has been placed to the credit of the Improvement Fund. The Collectors have been authorized to employ assistance in the service of the notices under the Representation of the People Act; and the Collector General has every reason to hope that both the registration work and the collection of rates will be satisfactorily performed.