§ MR. MACVEAGHI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether the attention of the Local Government Board has been called to the fact that the Hillsborough Rural District Council, West County Down, has decided to raise the rents of the labourers' cottages in their area; that the chairman and the rent collector warned the council that the result would be to empty the cottages, and that the councillor who proposed the increase replied that that was the very thing they wanted to do; whether the Local Government Board will refuse to sanction this resolution; and whether the Board will at the same time take steps to compel the council to consider the representations for further cottages, having regard to the declarations of the councillors that they will not build any more cottages.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board are aware that the facts are substantially as stated in the Question. Under Section 29 of the Act of last session the rural district council is required to make regulations dealing, amongst other things, with the rents to be charged for labourers' cottages, and such regulations do not come into force until confirmed by the Local Government Board. No regulations have yet been received from the rural district council in question. A special meeting of the council is to be held on 6th May for the purpose of considering all representations for labourers' cottages which they have received.