§ MR. BLANE (Armagh, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If the attention of the Local Government Board has been directed to the proceedings of the Belfast Board of Guardians on the 19th instant, when £10 was voted to Mr. James C. Neeson, acting clerk of the Union, for his services as Returning Officer in the room of the clerk of the Union who was ill, and £4 to Mr. Joseph W. Robb, sub-clerk, who assisted Mr. Neeson on the occasion; does the clerk receive £50 annually for the discharge of the duties of Returning Officer, let there be contested elections or not; does this sum form part of his salary or a bonus, and is it paid from Imperial or local funds; was there a deputy appointed to discharge Mr. Neeson's ordinary duties, and at what remuneration and how long engaged; and, have the Local Government Board sanctioned the payment of the moneys to Messrs. Neeson and Robb?
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY (Colonel KING-HARMAN) (Kent, Isle of Thanet)(who replied) said: Yes, Sir; the Local Government Board are aware of this case, the facts of which are substantially as represented in the Question. The salary attached to the office of Returning Officer is £50 a-year. It is payable in addition to the 1113 salary of the Clerk of the Union, and like that salary is chargeable to the poor's rate of the Union at large. A temporary assistant clerk was appointed, at the rate of 25s. a-week, to discharge the ordinary duties of Mr. Neeson while he acted as Clerk and Returning Officer. The payment of the amounts voted to Messrs. Neeson and Robb has not yet been sanction by the Local Government Board, as a Notice of Motion has been given by one of the Guardians to have the question of remuneration re-considered.