§ *MR. EDWARD MONCKTON (Northampton, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if he could state to the House whether, in the event of a spending authority ceasing to be the spending authority over part of its area, it could under any circumstances continue to receive the grant under the Agricultural Rating Act, 1896, for the area over which it has ceased to be the spending authority; and whether, considering that Section 3, Sub-section (1) of the Agricultural Rating Act, 1896, provided against the grant due to one area of a spending authority being used to the advantage of the remainder, can a spending authority use the proportion of a grant paid for an area which has ceased to belong to it in the reduction of the rates of the area over which it retains authority?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. HENRY CHAPLIN,) Lincolnshire, SleafordWhen there has been a change in the spending authority of a district or in the area under the jurisdiction of a spending authority the grant originally assigned to the district would be continued to that district unless the certificate as to the grant was altered. But the Act contemplates that under those circumstances the certificate shall be varied, and it would be the practice of the Local Government Board, in such a case, to alter it. The sum assigned under the original certificate would be reduced by the amended certificate, and, therefore, would not be payable to the spending authority.
§ SIR THOMAS ESMONDE (Kerry, W.)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether £74,969 is the whole 1098 amount due to Ireland for one year or the amount due to Ireland for half a year, under the Agricaltural Rating Act?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.The sum named is the whole amount due in 1896–7, representing one-half of the annual "equivalent grant," in accordance with the English Agricultural Rates Act. The amount payable in 1897–8 will be for 12 months, and therefore double the amount payable in 1896–97.