HC Deb 02 March 1882 vol 266 cc1928-9
MR. DIXON-HARTLAND

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, In what way the Act of 1878 gives adequate powers to the Metropolitan Board of Works for the protection from fire of the theatre-going public in the old theatres; whether it is a fact that the 11th section of that Act, which says that structural defects shall be remedied only if they can be done at a moderate expense, and even then subject to appeal, imperils the safety of the public by making their protection from fire subservient to the interests of the managers; and, whether, under any, and, if so, what Act of Parliament the Lord Chamberlain, the Metropolitan Board of Works, or any other authority, have power to shut up any theatre simply on the ground of the insufficiency of its exits or appliances against risk from fire?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

Sir, I am afraid that no amount of repetition of these Questions will ever induce the hon. Member to take the same view as I do of the Act of 1878. I cannot pretend to give a legal construction of it. My construction of it, however, is exactly the opposite of that which the hon. Member seems to take in his Question. But whether he is right or wrong in that matter it is not material to decide, because the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works has intimated that he intends to bring in a supplementary Act amending the Act of 1878, when the hon. Member will have the opportunity of proposing to insert such provisions as he may think necessary.

MR. DIXON-HARTLAND

The right hon. Gentleman has not answered the last part of my Question?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

I believe there is no such Act of Parliament.

MR. MACFARLANE

asked, whether, under the Act, it was to be the owner of a theatre himself or the Metropolitan Board of Works who were to judge whether the expense of remedying structural defects would be moderate or otherwise?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

If the hon. Member will take the trouble of looking at the Act, he will find that it is neither of them, and that an arbitrator has to decide that point.