§ MR. J. P. FARRELLI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state the total amount of money expended in the drainage of the Rum and Black River drainage district; for how much of this ratepayers in county Longford are responsible; and what is the amount in the £ levied on these ratepayers this year?
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (Mr. VICTOR CAVENDISH,) Derbyshire, W.I have no information as to the amount expended by the drainage board, which is a private body, in this particular district. Sums amounting to over £37,000 have been advanced by the Commissioners of Public Works to the drainage board for expenditure on new works, and the final instalment of repayment falls due on the 1st November, 1905. The persons liable to pay are not the ratepayers of county Longford, but the owners or occupiers of improved land, and they pay not by a rate in the pound, but in proportions assessed on their share in the improvements.