§ MR. SHEEHY (Galway, S.)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Is it a fact that a gentleman has been appointed by the Board of Works to pay the wages, &c. on the piers being built at Ard and Mason Island (Galway) who lives a distance of twelve or fourteen miles from the works, and who has to be paid ear hire and travelling expenses each time he goes to and from the works; and, if so, how much travelling expenses are paid to him each time; if another paymaster under the Board, who is paying the wages at another work in the same locality, lives within a mile or two of Ard and Mason, whose travelling expenses would be comparatively trifling if he had been appointed to pay at these works; if the gentleman who pays at the Ard and Mason works is obliged to drive past the very door of the other paymaster when going to Ard and returning; and, if any satisfactory explanation can be given why the Piers and Harbours money should be so unnecessarily expended?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HENRY H. FOWLER) (Wolverhampton, E.), in reply, said, the facts stated in the first part of the Question were substantially correct. The extra expense involved in the present arrangement amounted to about £2 out of a total estimate of £1,670. The Commissioners of Public Works, after careful consideration of the case, decided in their discretion to employ the present paymaster, who was already performing other duties which did not require his whole time.