§ MR. RENTOUL (Down, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is he aware that the Rural District Council of Downpatrick, on the 29th of May, by a majority of 41 to four, asked the Local Government Board to authorise the Council to appoint one of the two branch banks in Downpatrick as treasurer to the Council; will he explain why the Local Government Board refused to comply with this request and whether the wishes of the great majority of the council can be complied with.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe answer to the first paragraph of this question is in the affirmative. The Local Government Board did not feel warranted in depriving the treasurer, transferred to the Rural District Council, of the advantages secured to him by the provisions of the Act, which preserve the rights of this class of existing officer. Under Section 85 (1) the treasurer of the union becomes the treasurer of the rural district council, and by Section 101 (1) the powers of the Local Government Board as to the treasurers of unions and rural sanitary authorities is preserved. The treasurer of the Rural District Council of Downpatrick must, therefore, remain in office until he "dies, resigns, or is removed by the Local Govern- 453 ment Board." He refuses to resign, and as he is willing to give the Council every facility that any other bank will, and has in no respect failed in his duty, the Local Government Board cannot remove him from office merely for the purpose of allowing him to be supplanted by a rival banker, who has, I understand, been actively canvassing for this position.