§ MR. MOONEY (Dublin Co., S.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney - General for Ireland, whether he is aware that all prosecutions at the instance of the Rathmines and Rathgar Urban District 1120 Council have been dealt with by Mr. Thomas Chalmers Drury since his appointment as a divisional Magistrate of the Metropolitan District of Dublin; and whether, in view of the fact that this Gentleman prior to his appointment as divisional magistrate was standing council for the Rathmines and Rathgar Urban District Council, arrangements will be made for any future prosecutions at the instance of this council to be dealt with by some other magistrate.
§ * THE ATTORNE-YGENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.)There is no foundation for the statement contained in the Question, and, if possible, still less for the imputation apparently intended to be conveyed by it against an upright and efficient magistrate. Out of the fifty-eight days on which prosecutions of the nature mentioned came on for hearing, Mr. Drury presided on seventeen. The cases he dealt with came before him in the ordinary rotation of business and were adjudicated upon by him without objection by any of the parties interested. No change in the practice of the Court is in my opinion called for.