The Irish Queen's Bench on Monday dealt with the accounts
of the Dublin Corporation on an application made by a ratepayer to oblige the auditor to enforce certain sur- charges. The Corporation, among other things, had spent £1,000 more on a new ball-room than was allowed by the Council, and £51 16s. 8d. in connection with the entertain- ment provided for the Vartry Waterworks Committee. For this the auditor at first surcharged, but then refused to- enforce repayment. Apparently, inspecting waterworks is thirsty work, for the company of forty-six persons in all,. consumed a bottle-and-a-half of wine and half-a-bottle of whisky a-piece. Certain members of the party are stated to• have been total abstainers. But even taking this into con- sideration, and reckoning each Irish abstainer as a three- bottle man, this seems a very large consumption for a. water-party. It was delightfully characteristic of the whole proceedings that the auditor should have originally sur- charged the cost of the feast, but after he had sent in his report, should have come to the conclusion that the surcharge ought not to be enforced, and that this appeared to be also. the opinion of the Local Government Board. The Court• adjourned the further hearing of the case. Here is a chance for one of Sir Wilfrid epigrams.
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