§ Colonel NOLAN (Galway, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if, owing to the absconding of a sub-contractor, some workmen on the Suck Drainage have been left unpaid their wages for work actually performed; if be would request that the Hoard of Works would endeavour to see that these men were paid; and if lie would point out that, owing to the contribution's made to this drainage from public funds, the Board of Works has a claim to interfere, as it did in a similar case on the Clifden Railway?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Sir J. T. HIBBERT,) OldhamFrom information supplied by the Suck Drainage Hoard the statement in the first paragraph appears to he true; but the Drainage Hoard having paid the contractor, as it was bound to do, on a certificate that the work had been done, has no knowledge of his relations with the labourers, or power to interfere between them; nor have they any funds from which they could pay the wages. The men have only their legal remedy to look to, and, as in the case of the Galway and Clifden Railway, the Hoard of Works are precluded from interfering.