§ MR. CHARLES CRAIG (Antrim, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Congested Districts Board (Ireland) has recently established a centre at Castlerea; what is the average yearly cost of that establishment, including managers, clerks, surveyors, and gangers' fees; what operations have been undertaken by the district centre since it was formed; how many cottages has it erected, and how many are now in occupation; how much land has it bought; and how much has been divided up to the present time.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Congested Districts Board inform me that their centre at Castlerea was established in June, 1905. The administrative cost of the staff is £1,401 per annum, excluding 1083 £2,000 for working gangers employed on the works, whose wages are included in the labourers' paysheets. The operations undertaken at this centre since it was formed embrace the management, improvement, and preparation for resale of thirty estates. The estate improvement works between the date of the establishment of this centre and the end of last month cost £47,346, being expenditure for mearing fences, road making and fencing, buildings, drainage works, and planting. In addition to these works the staff have had the supervision of improvement of the houses and out-offices erected or improved by the tenants, and in respect of which assistance amounting to £1,236 has been paid by the Board to date; the control and supervision of the Board's parish committee scheme in nine parishes in respect of which the Board has made grants amounting to £1,750; the management of the Loughglynn Woods, including a saw mill where some 2,000 tons of timber are annually converted into scantlings for use in the Board's works and for sale to the Board's tenants, and the reinstatement of thirty-two evicted tenants in their old holding. Forty-four new cottages with out-offices have been completed on holdings intended for migrants, and twenty-six are in course of erection. Of this number thirty-nine are now in occupation and three others will be occupied this week. The Board have purchased thirty estates in the district of Castlerea, containing 36,992 acres of tenanted land and 18,604 acres of un-tenanted land, at a cost of £460,255. About 9,164 acres of the untenanted land are bog. Of the total areas mentioned 1,722 acres of tenanted land and 2,533 acres of untenanted land, representing together a sum of £57,658, are not yet vested in the Board, and therefore no improvement works can yet be carried out upon these lands. Excluding the area of bog above mentioned, the Board have 9,440 acres of untenanted land available for migration and enlargement of holdings, and they have divided up 1,940 acres of this land, all of which is now in the occupation of tenants.