e
VI. Local Government (Ireland) Acts.
remembered that to attempt to effect a reduction in expenditure
by starving the roads would be contrary to the interests of true
economy and inevitably lead to disproportionate expenditure here¬
after.
The popularity of the direct labour system of road maintenance
continues and steps for the renewal of existing schemes or the
formulation of fresh schemes were taken for rural districts in the
following counties :—Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Glare, Cork.
Down, Galway, Kilkenny, King's, Sligo, Tipperary, S.R., and
Westmeath.
The proceedings relating to the chargeability of the cost of
roads in County Mayo, which were referred to in our last report,
were followed by a new main road declaration of the County
Council. The County Council in following the prescribed pro¬
cedure at first formulated a provisional declaration where a num¬
ber of roads in the County were proposed to be treated as main
roads. On final consideration, however, the County Council
abandoned this position and declared that there should be no
main roads in the County. Two of the district councils, who
were adversely affected by this decision, appealed to us, and after
local inquiry we decided to make an Order in effect restoring the
provisional declaration of the County Council. The Order had
not been issued before the close of the year.
In County Galway steps were taken by the County Council to
revise the existing declaration of main roads and a new declara¬
tion was made requiring each district to bear the cost of its own
roads. Appeals against the decision of the County Council have
been received and the matter is now under our consideration. In
the counties of Cork, Longford, Tipperary S.E., and Tyrone the
existing main road declarations were also the subject of recon¬
sideration by the County Councils. In the cases of Cork, Tip¬
perary S.R., and Tyrone the final declarations became absolute
without appeals being made to us. The formalities in Longford
were not completed before the close of the year.
During the year we confirmed bye-laws framed by the County
Councils of Armagh, Kilkenny, and Londonderry and the County
Borough Council of Limerick under the Public Eoads (Ireland)
Act, 1911, for granting annual licences to locomotives used within
their areas other than for agricultural purposes, and for charging
a fee in respect of each licence.
Disposal of Corporate Property.
The operations under this head showed no sign of diminution
and dealt mainly with the renewal of leases of property in the
older boroughs. In previous reports we have explained the prin¬
ciples on which we normally act in such cases, but owing to war
conditions the usual provisions dealing with rebuilding operations
had to be specially considered in each case.
Where property was sold we insisted, so far as it was practic¬
able to do so, that the proceeds should be invested in Govern¬
ment War Loans
