§ MR. CRAUFURDasked the President of the Poor Law Board whether the hon. Member for Boston still continues to hold the office of auditor under the Poor Law Board.
MR. BOUVERIEsaid, the hon. Member for Boston (Mr. W. H. Adams) was one of the auditors of the Poor Law Union accounts. He was elected last year, under the operation of an Act of the reign of Her present Majesty, by the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Poor Law district in which he acted as auditor. He was only one of forty-nine other Poor Law officers who discharged duties of a similar character, and whose appointments wore under the immediate control of the Poor Law Board, because they were elected in the manner which had just been stated. The hon. Member for Boston, however, was paid out of money taken by Vote in that House on account of the Poor Law Board, and was liable by statute to dismissal by that Board in the case of his being incompetent to the discharge of his duties. The fact of his having been elected to represent Boston did not, he (Mr. Bouverie) believed, render him incapable of occupying his present position. He consequently retained the office of auditor; and, so far as his experience of the Poor Law Board went, he had every reason to think him a most useful officer.