Bennett's of Ballinacurra Descriptive List (Ref. B609)

B609/

‘managed to get £30 out of me rather mistaken generosity’. On 9 October he paid his men a bonus owing to the big barley season. On 18 November he was elected chairman of the Evicted Tenants’ Committee of the Board of Guardians. In December JHB samples took top prizes at the RDS show. B609/9/A/17 Diary, 1897. Bennett was re-elected parochial nominator and synodsman at a chancel meeting in Midleton on 16 April. On 22 April he chaired a meeting of petty sessions, but withdrew from adjudicating Ballinacurra cases. On 21 June Bennett was present at the procession in London marking Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee: ‘truly a magnificent sight never to be forgotten awakening all the pride of belonging to the Great British nation’. On 22 September he signed a contract for an AGS malting commission of 30,300 barrels. B609/9/A/18 Diary, 1898. About sixty children attended a Christmas entertainment on 6 January prepared by Bennett. On 31 January he played hockey for the first time, in Midleton. On 2 September Bennett had a long conversation with Mr La Touche of AGS concerning the ‘best means of encouraging growth and improving quality of barley in Ireland’. On 3 October Bennett took delivery of the yacht ‘Vanity’. B609/9/A/19 Diary, 1899. At a Board of Guardians meeting chaired by Bennett on 7 January it was reported by the House Committee that the day nursery of the Workhouse had been found to be very overcrowded. On 26 February Bennett was nominated as a candidate for the Rural District Council. Asked about Home Rule, he replied ‘would favour it if I saw the county was better run under the new L.G. [Local Government] Act’. He was elected on 8 April, though by the 29 th he was writing ‘At meeting Rural Dist. Council. Business very tedious much talking over small matters’. On 24 April he outlined to AGS his plans to extend the Village malthouse, and made a case for extra commission. On 24 July he completed a sailing trip which he describes as ‘the pleasantest time I ever had in my life’. On 28 July he inspected experimental plots in Killeagh ‘and found only some 3 that could be described as barley’. His son Jack commenced school at Midleton College on 4 September. Bennett followed the British army’s difficulties against the Boers very anxiously, and on 16 December noted ‘these 3 defeats within one week make the position the most disastrous the British army has witnessed since the War of American Independence’. He adds later ‘the effects on the Empire at large must be most disastrous and far reaching’. B609/9/A/20 Diary, 1900. On 27 January an RDC Scheme for 191 Labourers’ Cottages was passed, cost £32,640.On 14 June Mr Sheringham inspected the experimental plots ‘& highly approved same’. On 13 December Bennett had several meetings at AGS to discuss increasing his commission to meet costs of extension and wage increases [see also B609/1/B/5].

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