§ MR. D. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) whether he is aware that the application made to the Town Commissioners of Banger, county Down, acting as the urban sanitary authority of the district, to strike a separate water rate for 1898, was made by the requisite number of ratepayers as provided by statute; that the application was presented before any resolution was passed by the sanitary authority striking the rates for the current year; and that the said sanitary authority have refused to levy a separate water 243 rate for the year 1898, notwithstanding said application; and (2) whether, seeing that the large majority, if not all, of the Town Commissioners of Bangor benefit directly by not levying a separate water rate, the Local Government Board for Ireland, if they are so empowered, will direct that a separate water rate be levied in terms of the application of the ratepayers, as duly made and presented to the said urban authority?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe reply to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The Town Clerk states, however, that the application to strike a separate water rate was not served until after the notice of the striking of the rate had been given and advertised, and was only laid before the Commissioners on the day the rate was struck. The question raised by the second paragraph is whether the sanitary authority have made default within the meaning of the Public Health Act, 1896. If formal complaint under Section 15 of the Act be made to the Local Government Board, in reference to these matters, the Board will be prepared to direct a local inquiry to be instituted with a view of determining the question, and of having the provisions of the Act duly carried out.