§ MR. D. CRILLY (Mayo, N.)I beg-to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been drawn to a resolution of the Belmullet Board of Guardians, in which 404 it is declared that a large number of poor people from various localities, and especially from the Knocknalower dispensary district, have attended at the Belmullet Workhouse and informed the Board that unless they are relieved immediately they will have to become inmates of the workhouse; and if any report of this pressing and widespread distress has come to him from any official of the Irish Local Government Board; and, if not, will he direct an immediate inquiry to be made in Belmullet, so that, if necessary, instant steps may be taken to alleviate the distress there?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURA copy of the resolution referred to has been received. The condition of the poorer classes in the Belmullet Union is receiving very careful consideration, and every endeavour is being made to prevent any one suffering from want. I may point out that there are at the present time fewer inmates of the Belmullet Workhouse than was the case last month, and considerably fewer than at the corresponding period of the previous year. As has been already stated, one of the members of the Local Government Board is now in the West of Ireland making special inquiries into the condition and prospects of the poorer classes, and the Government expect to receive a report from him in the course of a few days.