§ MR. KENNEDY (Westmeath, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if the officer appointed by the Local Government Board to adjust the balances for and against the several electoral divisions in Mullingar Union took into consideration that at the end of the half-year ending 30th September, 1898, there was £200 due to the division of Killucan from the Board of Public Works, of which the said division only was given credit for £70; and, seeing that the electoral divisions of Killucan, Gloghan, and Clonlost, during the half-year ending 25th March, 1899, expended for purposes under the Labourers Acts, in anticipation of loans for schemes already sanctioned by the Board of Works and the Local Government Board, the sums of £195 4s. 2d., £106 19s. 8d., and £174 7s. 10d., respectively, and as these divisions were caused by this capital expenditure to appear in debt, and were called upon to meet it by increased taxation, and as the adjustment order was made when the late clerk was ill and unable to explain the matter to the adjusting officer, whether he will request the Local Government Board to reconsider the cases of these divisions with a view of having the amount of the extra rate refunded; and will he state whether each of these divisions has been credited with the full amount due to them from the Board of Works for the building of labourers' cottages under the several schemes.
§ MR. WYNDHAMA sum of £70, not £200, was due to the Killucan Division on the 30th September, 1898, out of a loan sanctioned for the erection of cottages in that division. The adjusting officer dealt with the balances certified by the auditor on the final account of the former board of guardians for the half year ended March, 1899. He had no 1127 power to deal directly with the balances of the previous half-year to September, 1898, though these were brought forward in the accounts for the following half-year, and consequently were taken into consideration when the adjustment Orders were made. The reply to the last paragraph is in the affirmative. The accounts of these divisions have all been investigated and reinvestigated, and there does not appear to be any necessity for further consideration.