§ COLONEL MCCALMONTTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a special rate of 1d. in the £, amounting to between £500 and £600 a year, has been levied on the county Leitrim for the last three years for the purposes of the Agricultural and Technical Instruction Act, and that less than £100 of these sums has been expended in the county for the purposes of the Act; and, if so, will he say whether steps can be taken to prevent the County Council levying rates from which no benefit is derived.
1300 (Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) A special rate of 1d. in the £ was levied in Leitrim in each of the years mentioned. The expenditure in connection with agricultural schemes in the county for the years 1901 and 1902 amounted to £759 17s. 7d., of which the sum of £338 16s. 9d. was borne by the rates. The estimated expenditure on agricultural schemes in the year 1903 is £992 18s., of which amount £441 6s. will be payable out of the rates. As regards technical instruction in the county, there was no scheme in operation during the session 1901–2, and the actual expenditure under that head was only £7 5s. 6d. For the session 1902–3, the expenditure up to the 14th January, 1903, was £196 3s. 9d. The technical instruction scheme is now in full operation, and the additional liabilities which have accrued since 14th January last, and which probably exceed a total of £300, were to have been discharged at the meeting of the County Committee of agriculture and technical instruction on the 15th instant. The County Council has transferred to the Committee the full local contribution, £150, for the Session 1901–2, and a sum of £50 on account of the Session 1902–3. The Department has accordingly paid its full contribution for 1901–2—viz., £300, and one-third, £100, of its contribution for 1902–3, besides £103 14s. 1d. for equipment, making in all £503 14s. 1d. for technical instruction.