§ MR. TULLYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can explain why the Board of Agriculture purchase bulls in Scotland and send them to the county Wexford, ignoring the local breeders, geeing that at the spring show in 1903 out of fifty-four entries in the aged bull class, seven of the first twelve were Wexford bulls; can he say how much has been paid to Scotch breeders for the bulls sent by the Department to Wexford; and what is the amount of tax levied on the rate payers of that county for the purposes of the Committee of Agriculture.
§ MR. WYNDHAMOf the thirteen bulls purchased for premiums in county Wexford this year three were bred in the county, four in other parts of Ireland, one in England, and five in Scotland. The price paid for the five Scotch bulls was £184. Owing to the scarcity of suitable bulls in 1903, five of the premiums offered were not taken up. In order to assist the county committee to secure the full number this year the Department sold the five Scotch bulls to farmers in Wexford, who selected the animals themselves out of a number in the hands of the Department. A rate of one penny in the £ is raised over the whole county under the Act of 1899 and is estimated to produce £1,460.