THE EARL OF BELMORE, in rising to call attention to the 54th, 57th, and 87th sections of the Local Government Act, 1888; and to ask Her Majesty's Government whether parties aggrieved by orders of the Local Government Board, made or confirmed under either the 54th or 57th sections, may petition Parliament, and be heard before a Select Committee, in the manner provided by the 87th section for cases to which it applies, said: My object in putting this question is not so much to get from my noble Friend (Lord Balfour of Burley) an interpretation of the clauses mentioned in the question, as to elicit from him what is the policy which Her Majesty's Government is of opinion ought to be pursued with those Orders of the Local Government Board which are laid upon the Table of this House.
*LORD BALFOURI think I can reply to this question in a very few words. Your Lordships, on referring to Sections 54 and 57 of the Act, will see that they deal with important subjects, such as the alteration of the boundaries of the county and making new county boroughs. But other matters referred to, such as the number of wards and electoral districts, are of less importance, and the policy of the Act is to deal with these different matters according to the different degrees of their importance. In regard to some of them it is provided by Section 54 that, while the County Council and the Local Government Board may agree on what is desirable to be done, and may embody their decisions in a Provisional Order, the policy of which is to regard those matters as of such intrinsic importancee that they must be submitted to Parliament in the form of Bills confirming Provisional Orders. Section 87 provides that those Provisional Orders should be dealt with in the same way, in every rsspect, as other Provisional Orders are dealt with when they are brought before Parliament—namely, that if opposed, they should be referred to a 204 Select Committee, and that the parties should be heard by counsel. This applies only to the first four sub-sections, a, b, c, and d. In regard to the sub-sections e and f, they have reference to matters of much less importance, and upon them the decision of the Local Government Board is final. Section 57 relates to different classes of subjects. In regard to some of them the decision of the County Council and the Local Government Board taken together is final; and, in the first two or three classes, a Report has to be laid before Parliament by the Local Government Board if a certain number of electors oppose. But in regard to these matters, all that is done is that the Local Government Board makes a Report to both Houses of Parliament of what has been done, and leaves the opponents, should there be any, to take such steps in either House as they may think fit. What those steps would be would depend upon the circumstances in each case; but I think I am not going too far in saying that it would probably have to be by Motion disapproving the action of the Local Government Board. There is, therefore, no analogy between the procedure under the 57th section and the Tramways Act to which the noble Lord has referred.