§ MR. HAWES, pursuant to the notice he had given on Thursday, begged to ask the right hon. the Secretary of State for the Home Department what course the Government intended to pursue with regard to the Metropolitan Buildings Bill, and when the right hon. Baronet meant to introduce the amended Bill?
§ SIR J. GRAHAMreplied that the Bill of last Session had been submitted to Mr. Hargreave, who recommended that it should be cut up into four parts, which should be brought in as separate Bills. That had accordingly been done, and two of those Bills were in course of preparation, and would be ready for presentation to the House in the early part of next month. The object of the first would be the regulation of buildings. The second related to the official referee and the general machinery for carrying the law into effect. The third related to the property 983 adjoining buildings about to be erected; and the fourth to nuisances. Of these the two first would be ready next month. The others involved questions of exceeding difficulty, and to the time at which they would be ready for presentation he could not pledge himself. It would perhaps be satisfactory to state that there was a power for the revision of fees under the existing law, and that it was the intention of Government to reduce those fees.