§ MR. SEXTON (Kerry, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with reference to recent disparaging suggestions as to the management of the Listowel Poor Law Union, whether he is aware that, at the close of the last financial year, on the 25th of March, 1894, the Guardians had to credit of their bank account £1,941 7s. 10d., and assets outstanding to the value of £4,000, and whether, at the date in question, all substantial debts of the Union had been discharged, including a sum of £500 due for seed rate by the Glinn Union, lately incorporated with Listowel; and that the Guardians have still kept to their credit a sum of over £1,000, although the sum of £690, balance of seed rate due by the Glin Union, has been withdrawn from their account by sealed order; and whether the increase of charge for indoor and outdoor relief is reasonably accounted for by a moderate improvement in the dietary, by pressure of poverty, owing to agricultural depression, by the number of evictions in the district, and by the effect of the emigration of young people upon the proportion of the aged in the Home population?
MR. J. MORLEYThe clerk of the Listowel Board of Guardians reports that on the 25th of March last the Guardians had a credit balance at bank of £1,941 7s. 10d., and that the total assets outstanding amounted to£1,883 11s. 10d. At the close of the half-year to the 25th of March last, the outstanding seed rate amounted to £1,189 17s. 4d., nearly £1,000 of which were due by the divisions transferred from the late Glinn Union, but of which about one-half only 1630 is recoverable, and there being at that date £690 12s. 10d. due to the Board of Works, the outstanding seed rate cannot be considered an asset. A sum of £500 was paid to the Board of Works on the 20th of February on account of seed loan for the transferred electoral divisions, but all the substantial debts of the Union had not on March 25th last been discharged, there being due to Union officers, contractors, and others £740 which, if then paid, would reduce the credit balance to £1,200. After payment on the 30th of April of £690, balance of seed rate due by the Glinn Union, the Guardians had to their credit at bank £1,062, and at the present time the credit balance stands at £310. The dietary of the inmates of the workhouse has been improved of late years, and this to some extent has caused an increase of charge. No opinion is expressed as to the other causes alleged in the concluding paragraph.