§ MR. M'CARTANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has yet received any Report as to the result of the inquiry recently made in connection with deaths in the Lunatic Department of the Belfast Workhouse, and the information to be supplied to the City Coroner?
MR. J. MORLEYThe Local Government Board Commissioner who proceeded to Belfast to inquire into this matter informs me that the differences that had arisen between the Guardians and the Coroner appeared to have been the result of a misunderstanding rather than of an actual disagreement. On the subject of the information to be supplied by the Guardians to the Coroner concerning persons dying in the lunatic wards, the Coroner explained to the Commissioner the reasons his queries must be answered in order to enable him to decide whether an inquest was necessary. When this was communicated to the Guardians by the Commissioner they at once made an order directing their staff to furnish as fully as possible all the information in their possession to the officers of the Coroner's Court, so as to-facilitate the Coroner in deciding whether an inquest was necessary or not. 299 The Guardians assured the Commissioner that far from wishing to withhold any information about their lunatic department they had always been willing to afford it; but it seems that a hitch had arisen, owing to the Coroner having directed certain queries to be answered by the medical officer which that gentleman was not in a position to reply to.