§ MR. GRENVILLE BERKELEYsaid, that on the 16th June orders were given by the Home Secretary to close 106 graveyards in the metropolis. He wished to know how many new burial grounds or cemeteries were being provided under the Act of last year to replace those ordered to be closed?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONsaid, that his hon. Friend was quite correct in stating the number of graveyards which had been closed by Order in Council. Other graveyards in the metropolis were under examination, and the rest would probably be closed at no distant period. The Act of last year gave the Home Secretary power to close graveyards, the continuance of which was injurious to the public health, but it did not vest in him any power to provide new graveyards. That arrangement was left to the parishes concerned, and he was not therefore able to state to his hon. Friend exactly what arrangement had been made by the parishes to provide new means of interment. He did, however, happen to know that several parishes were engaged in providing new places of interment, and he 385 also knew that, besides the great cemetery at Woking, established by Act of Parliament two or three years ago, there was a Bill which had passed through that House, and was now under discussion in the House of Lords, for providing another cemetery at a certain distance from the metropolis. It was within the circumference of what was called the metropolitan district, and could not have been undertaken without the sanction of the Secretary of State. He had, however, felt it his duty to give that sanction from a desire to afford every facility for supplying the place of those graveyards which he had felt it his duty to close.