Annual report of the Local Government Board for Ireland for year 1921

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Local Government (Ireland) let, 1919. 
ix facilitate the proper discharge of the duties devolving on local officers. 
Proceeding then on these lines, we made on the 1st December, 1919, a consolidated election order, entitled The Local Elections (P.R.I.) 
Order, 1919. 
In promulgating this order to the authorities concerned, we took the opportunity to forward to them a memorandum containing suggestions for the practical conduct of the elections. 
We foresaw that the success of the new procedure would depend, to a large extent, upon the several election officials being able to apply readily in practice the rules and regulations embodied in our Order for the counting and transferring of votes. 
As the time available for educational purposes and for making the neces¬ sary election arrangements was, howrever, very limited, we secured the services of the Secretary of the Proportional Representation Society of England, and others, who delivered lectures on the system of Proportional Representation and gave practical demon¬ strations of the method to be employed in the counting of the votes at various convenient centres throughout the country. 
The lectures wrere well attended, the officials concerned availing themselves fully of the instruction afforded, and we are pleased to be in a position to state that having regard thereto and to the model elections held by the several officers locally, supplemented by the exertions of the Proportional Representation Society of Ireland, who undertook the education of the electorate, the elections held on the 15th of January, 1920. 
for county borough, borough and urban district councillors and town commissioners were carried on throughout the country most successfully. 
We gladly take this opportunity to thank the Proportional Repre¬ sentation Society for their whole-hearted co-operation and invaluable assistance. 
While this educational work was being carried out in the country we proceeded to put into operation the powers conferred by section I (4) of the Act which authorised us to increase or otherwise alter the scales of election expenses fixed from time to time by county councils pursuant to article 6 of the schedule to the Local Government (Application of Enactments) Order, 1898, so as to render them applicable to the elections to be carried out under the new system. 
We confined our attention, in the first instance, to the scales of expenses for the municipal elections to be held in January, 1920, and having considered the rates allowed by the existing scales and having obtained other necessary information we decided to make the necessary Orders ; one applicable to the six county boroughs (subsequently modified in the case of Dublin) and three applicable to the urban districts (including the other boroughs) and towns classified in accordance with the size of the electorates and named in the respective Schedules.