§ MR. F. W. MACLEAN (Oxford. Woodstock)asked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether his attention has been called to the appointment of the same gentleman to fill the offices of Surveyor of Highways of the Bampton East Highway District, Oxfordshire (containing a mileage of 138 miles), and of Sanitary Inspector of the Bampton Rural Sanitary District (consisting of 42 parishes and covering 70,048 acres); whether, having regard to the large and increasing duties of such offices, it is possible for one person adequately to discharge the same; whether complaints have been received by the Local Government Board from the ratepayers of the 13 district in relation to such appoint in cuts; whether the Board has been urged by many of such ratepayers not to sanction the appointment of the same person to both offices; and, whether, under these circumstances, the Local Government Board will direct inquiry to be made into the soundness or other-wise of such complaints, and not sanction the appointment during the coming year unless satisfied that there is no ground for such complaints?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Mr. RITCHIE) (Tower Hamlets. St. George's)In 1885, when the Local Government Board were informed that the Inspector of Nuisances of the district in question had been re-appointed, and that it was proposed that he should also hold the office of Surveyor of Highways, the Board objected to the two offices being held by the same person. But, having received particulars of the work which had been done by the Inspector of Nuisances, and the Medical Officer of Health for the county having borne testimony to the efficiency with which that officer discharged his duties; the Board considered that there was no sufficient reason for their withholding their assent to an arrangement which had boon unanimously approved by the Sanitary Authority. The Inspector has now been re-appointed for another year. The only communication which the Board has received objecting to the re-appointment is from the way warden of one of the 38 parishes in the highway district. The Board, before arriving at a decision on the subject, will ask for the observations of the Sanitary Authority on the statements in that communication.