§ MR. D. SULLIVAN (Westmeath, S.)On behalf of the hon. Member for Cork (Mr. MAURICE HEALY), I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Local Government Board, in determining, for the purposes of the Agricultural Rates Act, 1896, the amount which, for the purposes of the Act, is to be taken as having been raised during the last year before the passing of the Act, by each spending authority, by any rate, took into consideration any balance in the hands of the spending authority at the beginning of that year which would lessen the amount of the rate actually levied; and whether such, balances were treated as having been raised, within the meaning of the Act, during the year in question, and the amount of the agricultural grant calculated as if they had been so raised?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARDThe Local Government Board were empowered, in determining for the purposes of the Agricultural Rates Act the amount which was to be taken to have been, raised during the year ended 31st March, 1896, by a spending authority, to take into 36 consideration any special circumstances affecting the amount so raised; and, when it was brought under the attention of the Board that a balance in hand had lessened the amount of rates to be raised, the amount by which the rates were so lessened was taken into account in fixing the Grant.