§ MR. W. M. TORRENSsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is aware that the Local Board of Health at Ealing, on the 4th instant, at a meeting held pursuant to the Public Health Act of 1848, passed a resolution excluding the Press and the Local Board Ratepayers from their Board Room; whether any Secretary of State has confirmed or allowed any by-law of a Local Board of Health authorizing its meetings to be held with closed doors; and, whether, considering the important powers committed to such Boards by the Act aforesaid, together with the provisions rendering the members of such Boards eligible for re-election, and prohibiting them from holding any office of profit, or participating in profits of any contract under or with such Board, Boards of Health are not public Courts or Boards?
MR. BRUCEsaid, in reply, that he had received a communication from the clerk of the local Board at Ealing, informing him that he had advised the Board that the Press had no legal right to be present at its meetings, but that their admission was entirely at the discretion of the Board. In answer to the second Question, he (Mr. Bruce) was not aware that any Secretary of State had ever confirmed or allowed any by-laws authorizing local Boards to hold meetings with closed doors. In reply to the third Question, although Boards of Health were, in a popular sense, public Boards for public purposes, they were not so in a technical and legal sense.