§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Irish Local Government Board dissolved the Board of Guardians of the Clogher Union for their action in the appointment of a lady (Miss Magill) as a rate collector, and their refusal to annul that appointment; whether the Irish Local Government Board found fault with MissMagill's appointment on the sole ground that under the 152nd section of the Irish Grand Jury Act (6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 116) distress warrants cannot be issued to any other person than the rate collector, who must execute the decree in person, and that a woman is unfitted for the work; whether he is aware that it has been decided by a full court over which the Lord Chief Baron presided in 1888, in the case R. (Jones) v. Rony (23 I. L. T. R., p. 28), that the 152nd section of the Irish Grand Jury Act is inconsistent with the provisions of the Irish Petty Sessions Act, and repealed by that Act, which provides that the execution of the warrant is cast on the police and not on the rate collector; and whether the Local Government Board will sanction the appointment of Miss Magill to a poor rate collectorship in accordance with the 953 practice in England, where several women are poor rate collectors?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe Board of Guardians of the Clogher Union was not dissolved for the reasons stated in the first paragraph, but because the Guardians refused to sign the warrants of Collector Cuthbertson. The inquiries in the other paragraphs of the question have already been answered by me in replying to previous questions on the same subject. I would particularly refer the honourable and learned Member to my replies of the 9th and 10th February last.