§ MR. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is he aware that at the Lisbellaw Petty Sessions, on the 19th of May last, a number of persons were charged by the Tempo police with drunkenness and other offences, and convicted; that expenses in each of the cases were claimed by the police for car hire, and granted, notwithstanding that Tempo is within four miles of Lisbellaw; and the police declined to give any account of the sums granted; can he state the amount of costs allowed in these Tempo cases for the quarter ending 30th June, 1899; and whether magistrates at Petty Sessions have power to grant extra expenses to police within a shorter distance than eight miles from Petty Sessions Court.
§ THE CHIEF SECRETAEY FOR IRELAND (Mr. G. W. BALFOUR,) Leeds, CentralThe facts are as stated in the first paragraph, except that the distance 681 between Tempo and Lisbellaw is five and a half statute miles, and that it is not the fact that the police were asked to render an account of the sums granted. The amount of the costs so allowed the Tempo police for the quarter ended the 30th June, 1899, was 14s. Under Section 22, Sub-section 9, of the Petty Sessions Act, 1851, the magistrates are authorised to award costs up to 20s. in each case, irrespective of distance.