MAYO (TNISHBOFIN AND 1NISHARK).
V
RETURN to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons,
dated 15 July 1873 ;—for,
COPY " of the Official Cobbespondence with the Irish Government relative to the proposed Temporary Re-transfer of the Islands of Inish-bofin and InisharJc to the County of Mayo"
Irish Office,
18 July 1873.
— No.
l.~-
Major the Honourable W.
Le Doer Trench, m.p.,
to the Chief Secretary for
Ireland.
Transfer of Islands of Bonn and Shark.
My Lord, House of Commons, 6 June 1873.
I have the honour to bring to your notice an injustice, which, unless met by the issue of a Supplemental Order in Council, appears likely to be inflicted upon the barony of Ballynahinch, county Galway, in consequence of the transfer of the Inishbofin and Inishark Group of Islands from the county Mayo to the county Galway.
It-may be in your recollection that, for the convenience of the inhabitants of those islands* the transfer took place last February, in pursuance of an Order by his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant in Council, dated the 3rd January 1873, and under the authority of the Acts 34 & 35 Vict.
c.
106, and 35 & 36 Vict.
c.
48, from which I append extracts, under which such a Supplemental Order as that asked for can.
I submit, be issued.
Shortly after the transfer, on the 5th of last March, the attention of the Grand Jury of the county of Galway was called b» Mr.
Burke, the Under Secretary, to the disgraceful state of the roads in the said islands, and he sug¬ gested that immediate steps should be taken for putting them in order.
Orders were in consequence issued to the county surveyor to take the requisite steps.
Among other facts quoted by the Under Secretary was the following.
He says,
" It is stated that the good roads that were once on the islands are going into utter decay, not a shilling having been spent on them for years, although the people are paying taxei annually for the repair."
The account he gave of the landing places also was lamentable.
As the figures quoted in the Under Secretary's letter were not strictly official, I, in anticipation of an application such as the present, moved for Returns, which, with your concurrence, were ordered before Easter, but which have only recently been furnished.
From these Returns it appears that since the year 1859 the sum ot 7271 lis.
10 d.
has been levied from of!
these islands as Grand Jury Cess.
The Treasurer of the county Mayo says that he is unable to state what sums have been expended on them, but from the correspondence which accompanied the Return, it would appear that only 50 /.
has been expended on the islands 320 A during
