HC Deb 17 February 1898 vol 53 cc896-7
MR. VESEY KNOX

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Treasury have certified that they have paid in respect of the municipal revision of Derry the sum of £33 12s. for the year 1896, and £33 12s. for the year 1897; how that sum has been arrived at; whether, when giving this certificate, the Treasury were aware that there has in fact been no additional cost of revision in Londonderry since the passing of the Act of 1896, which made the Parliamentary Lists, without lodgers, the lists also for Municipal purposes, the revisions in 1896 and 1897 having occupied a shorter time than in any of the ten preceding years; whether any report was called for from the Clerk of the Crown and Peace for the County; and, if so, what did he report; whether he is aware that under the Act of 1896 the wards are conterminous with the polling districts, and there is, or can be, no municipal voter who is not also a Parliamentary voter; and whether, under these circumstances, he can explain what additional cost has been incurred?

THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY

The Treasury have certified in the terms stated in the first paragraph. The sums in question have been arrived at from statements furnished by the Revising Barristers, who state that in each year they were occupied for two additional days in consequence of the Municipal Revision. The Treasury Certificate was not based upon any comparison between the cost of revision in the two years 1896 and 1897, and any previous years. Obviously the circumstances vary from year to year. The Treasury did receive communications from the Clerk of the Crown and Peace in connection with Section 13 of the Londonderry Improvement Act, 1895, but in making their certificate under section 12 they were not under any obligation to consult him. I cannot accept the hon. Member's argument that, merely because the wards are conterminous with the polling districts, no part of the cost of a joint revision is to be attributed to the revision for municipal purposes. The Treasury regard the Revising Barristers as best qualified to form an estimate of the additional work entailed by the municipal revision, and by their opinions the Treasury have accordingly been guided.