.
;();]
Ijocnl Government (Ireland) Acti.
111.
toral Divisions, and for geographical and other reasons we have
found it convenient in these cases to grant the direction asked for.
Although the matter, strictly speaking, falls outside the period
covered by this Report, we may also mention here that represen¬
tation was made to us that the number of Councillors representing
the District Electoral Division of Loughrea Urban on the
Loughrea Rural District Council was insufficient, in view of the
population and rating of Loughrea town (which constitutes the
District Electoral Division of Loughrea Urban), and having satis¬
fied ourselves that this was the case, we made an Order on the
2nd April, 1914, increasing the number of Rural District Coun¬
cillors assigned to that Division from two to four.
Several of the County Councils—these being the bodies
primarily responsible for fixing the scale of expenses at Local
Government Elections held in the various counties—have, with
our approval, revised the scales in force in their respective counties
with a view to adjusting them to meet the conditions obtaining
at present.
We confirmed schemes formulated by the Tyrone County
Council under the Polling Districts and Registration of Voters
(Ireland) Act, 1908, for the alteration of previous schemes made
by them with regard to polling districts in the Parliamentary
Divisions of North and South Tyrone.
The usual Municipal Elections took place in January last, and,
on the whole, the Returning Officers and their assistants carried
out their various duties satisfactorily.
Request was made to us by a resolution of the Belturbet
Urban District Council to make an Order under Section 23 of
the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, applying to the Dis¬
trict the provisions of that Act with respect to the duration of
office of County Councillors, and, on the 2nd October, 1913, we
made an Order accordingly for the triennial election of Coun¬
cillors in that District. The first Council elected under this
Order came into office on the 16th January, 1914.
Bate Collection.
The collection of the poor rate continues to be satisfactory.
Last year we had occasion to draw attention to the financial
embarrassment caused to County Councils and the various sub¬
sidiary bodies owing to want of funds in the earlier portion of
each half-year, and, as the result of a circular reminding +he
Collectors of the necessity of proceeding with their collections
immediately on the receipt of their warrants, a considerable im¬
provement is to be noted in the progress made in the collections.
The County Councils generally have now sufficient credit balances
to meet the statutory demands made from time to time upon
f heir funds.
As regards the collection for the half-year ended the 30th
September, the full amount of the warrants was lodged by the
close of the half-year, with few exceptions, and in most of these
cases failure to close in time was due to illness, or to the inter¬
ruption of the collection due to death of Collectors and the
b
