§ MR. DONAL SULLIVAN (Westmeath, S.)On behalf of the honourable Member for North Westmeath, I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the great inconvenience that will be caused throughout the county of Westmeath by the date fixed (6th April) for the polling for the county and district councils by reason of the fact that the great annual Mullingar Fair falls on that day; and whether, as the patent of the fair will not allow the date of holding same to be altered, the Local Government Board will change the date of polling, 317 say to the 4th or 7th April, so as to suit the special circumstances of the county, as otherwise large numbers of the electors will be unable to exercise the franchise owing to the long distances they will have to travel to attend the Fair?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND (MR. GERALD BALFOUR,) Leeds, CentralThe honourable Member has been good enough to send me a copy of a Resolution adopted at a recent meeting of electors held at Mullingar on the subject mentioned in the first paragraph. It would, I think, be undesirable to have different days for elections throughout Ireland. It is within the power of the Local Government Board to make provision for dealing with cases in which substantial difficulty arises, but they would have to be satisfied that strong-reasons existed before making any change.