§ MR. M'CARTAN (Down, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Lord Lieutenant has received a memorial from the County Down County Council against the proposal of establishing a hospital for infectious diseases at Purdysburn near the Belfast Lunatic Asylum whether he is aware that the Belfast Hospitals Act, 1898, under which this proposal is made is permissive and not mandatory, and that the statute is not a public statute; and whether, in the interest of the unfortunate persons mentally afflicted, he will take the whole matter into consideration, with the view of preventing the erection of any such hospital.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe reply to the first paragraph is the affirmative. The county council have been informed that under the Act of 1898 the Belfast 443 Corporation are empowered to devote and hold for hospital purposes the whole or any part of the lands in question, and that under the circumstances the Government have no power to interfere in the matter.