§ MR. J. P. FARRELLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can state the reason which guided the Local Government Board in declaring that the area of charge for the cost of a new burial ground at Ardagh should be the Longford Dispensary District, which would include the urban district of Longford; whether he is aware that prior to the passage of the Local Government Act the township of Longford formed part of this district; and, can he state the grounds upon which the Local Government Board have now varied this order, so as to make the area of charge the whole union of Longford instead of the dispensary district as at first arranged, including the urban district of Longford.
§ MR. WYNDHAMOn the 19th January, 1898, the Local Government Board, at the request of the rural sanitary authority, fixed the area of charge for this work on the electoral divisions constituting the Longford Dispensary District. The reply to the second paragraph is in the affirmative. The variation of the original order has not been 1447 made by the Board, but is the result of the Local Government Act itself, as, under Section 234 of the Public Health Act of 1878, amended by Schedule VI of the Local Government Act and Article 36 of the Adaptation of Irish Enactments Order, 1899, burial ground expenses are now "district charges." This case is, therefore, no exception to the general rule.
§ MR. J. P. FARRELLIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the variation of the original arrangement is causing great friction between local authorities in Ireland, and will he include in the proposed Provisional Order some change which will obviate this?
§ MR. WYNDHAMI cannot give so general an undertaking. I am, however, looking into the whole question.