§ MR. J. PINKERTON (Galway)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if his attention has been directed to the proceedings of the Grand Jury of County Galway, on Wednesday last, when they refused to pass 19 presentments to pay interest due to the Board of Works, thereby withholding a considerable sum from the Treasury, the foreman stating that they had refused to present as a protest against their excessive and unfair treatment by the Treasury in the matter of interest on public loans; and, whether seeing the low rate at which the Government can borrow, he will see his way to reduce the rate of interest due upon loans granted to public boards in Ireland?
§ MR. HANBURYit is the fact that the Judge allowed the Grand Jury to refuse to pay certain debts to the Board of Works, on the ground that the Board had not sent them the proper certificates in each case; and the matter was sprung upon the Board of Works so unexpectedly that they had not time to advise the Crown Solicitor of the right answer—which is that the necessity for such certificates, although provided for in the original Loan Acts, is now dispensed with by Section 13 of the Public Works Loans Act, 1883. On the following day, the Judge having left Galway, the Board applied to the other Judge for an order for the raising of the amount, but as certain county documents were missing, he would not deal with the matter. Under the 1549 section quoted, however, the mistake can be corrected by the High Court, to which an application will accordingly be made. The statutory rates of interest under the various Loan Acts of which the Grand Jury complained, vary between one per cent. for Relief of Distress, three-and-a-quarter per cent. for Drainage, three-and-a-half per cent. for Industrial Schools and Lunatic Asylums, and five per cent. for Roads and Bridges. I have repeatedly explained that, as the Local Loans Fund is at present constituted, it only just pays its way, and any reduction in the present rate of interest would seriously endanger its solvency.