§ MR. WILLIAM O'BRIEN(for Mr. T. M. HEALY) (Tyrone, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Can he now announce what course the Local Government Board have decided to take with reference to the admission of candidates' solicitors to the scrutiny of votes at the pending poor law elections?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne)said, he found that the Local Government Board had no power to make an order compelling the Returning Officers to admit solicitors of candidates on these occasions. The most they could do was to include a recommendation to the effect in the instructions to those officers, and he had no doubt that such a recommendation would in most cases be acted upon. But the question whether the order should be amended in this respect was one which he found, on inquiry, to be of much difficulty; and after a good deal of consideration he had felt obliged to reserve it for his own personal consideration after discussion with the officials, solicitors, and others. This, he feared, must necessitate the forthcoming election being conducted according to the present practice.