§ MAJOR WYNDHAM-QUIN (Glamorgan, South)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether he is aware that doubts have been published to the effect that it has been omitted to provide in The Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, for the rating of the occupiers of holdings valued at £i and under; and, if this is so, will the Government introduce legislation to correct this omission?
§ THE ATTORNEY - GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.)I am aware that at p. 826 of a Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant in Ireland, recently published by Messrs. Quill & Hamilton, it is stated that the omission referred to occurs in the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898. The statement is, in my opinion, entirely erroneous. There is no such omission. And from the misquotation on the above-mentioned page of the language of one of the Schedules to the Act, it would appear 643 that the authors have fallen into this obvious error by construing the words "this Act" where they occur in that Schedule, as if they referred to a Statute assed over a half a century ago, and not as they manifestly do to the Local Government Act itself. Occupiers of holdings of the class mentioned are as regards rating in the same position as the occupiers of other classes of holdings. Fresh legislation on the subject is unnecessary as there is nothing to correct.