§ MR. TOMLINSON (Preston)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Battersea Burial Board is constituted under 15 & 16 Vict. c. 85, ss. 10 and 11; and, if so, 1151 whether their application to the Home Secretary to use the Rose Hill Park site, Sutton, Surrey, for burial purposes is, made under see. 6, 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134, which renders an application to Parliament, as suggested, totally unnecessary; and, if he will state from what source he has ascertained that the majority in Sutton object to the use of the land as proposed?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)The Board is constituted as stated in my hon. Friend's Question. It is true that an application to Parliament is not necessary; but a successful application to Parliament would make it unnecessary to apply to the Secretary of State to dispense with the Order in Council prohibiting burials in Sutton, and would afford the best means of settling the points in controversy between supporters and opponents of the scheme. My information as to the public opinion in Sutton was derived from the various Reports, Memorials, and Petitions before me; but I must not be understood to have stated positively that the objectors are in a majority, although that was my impression.