‘Gerrymander of Tyrone Complete’ – On This Day in 1924

March 7 1924

The gerrymander of Tyrone is now complete. An order has been issued by the Belfast Ministry fixing the rate-collectors’ districts in accordance with the new gerrymandered area.

If the elections arranged to take place in May or June next are contested, the following may be taken as a fairly accurate forecast of the relative strength of the two parties.

Omagh Rural District, which now consists of 26 Nationalist and 13 Unionist elected members, would return 18 Nationalists and 21 Unionists, while the numbers of the register are approximately 8,400 Nationalists and 5,400 Unionists.

The present County Council consists of 17 Nationalists and 11 Unionist members, but under the gerrymandered arrangement 25 Unionists and 11 Nationalists would form the council.

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When the new County Council and District Councils are formed there will be 120 Unionist and 60 Nationalist county and district councillors.

With the re-drawing of electoral boundaries in Tyrone greatly favouring unionists, nationalists claimed they would not contest the next local elections if the boundary issue was not settled by then.

Financial Relations with Britain

The contribution of Northern Ireland to the cost of Imperial services is the subject of the first report of the Northern Ireland Special Arbitration Committee, which was issued yesterday. The committee consists of Lord Colwyn (chairman), Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, and Sir Josiah Stamp.

The contributions for the years 1922-23 and 1923-24, it is stated, were revised by the Joint Exchequer Board, and stood at £6,000,000 per annum.

The committee recommend that for the financial year 1922-23 the contribution should be the surplus of revenue over expenditure, after excluding from the account items totalling £294,200, but bringing into account the whole of the grant in aid of £150,000 for special initial expenses. On the basis of the preliminary account for the year 1922-23, submitted to the committee, the result of contribution would be £5,854,674, subject to the audit of the accounts.

Despite the provision under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 for Northern Ireland contributing to the cost of Imperial services annually, as the north struggled economically and deficits grew, it became increasingly difficult for it to do so and became more reliant on help from the British Treasury instead.