§ MR. FETHERSTONHAUGH (Fermanagh, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any petition from the urban council of Ballina, county Mayo, for the grant of a patent to enable the council to hold monthly fairs, has been presented to His Majesty; whether he is aware that such petitions, if from Ireland, are referred to the Irish Government and law officers; whether he will take steps, through the Local Government Board for Ireland or otherwise, to communicate to Irish local bodies the procedure to be followed in applying for patents for fairs, the nature of the evidence that should be adduced, and contents or form of the petitions; and will he say whether any rules or directions on the subject have ever been made.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The petition in Question has been received, and is under the consideration of the Lord-Lieutenant, who in practice deals with all applications to the Crown for the grant of patents for fairs or markets in Ireland. There does not appear to be 52 any necessity to communicate with Irish local bodies as suggested. If a local body or an individual owner desires to establish a fair or market, all needful information is given on application to the Under-Secretary, Dublin Castle. If an application is, prima facie, one that can be granted His Majesty's Writ of Ad Quod Damnum issues to the high sheriff of the county, who summons a jury to determine whether the granting of the fair or market would be of any damage to His Majesty or any of His subjects who hold fairs or markets near the place proposed for the grant. Beyond this no rules on the subject have been made.