§ MR. W. W. BEACHsaid, he rose to call attention to the circumstances under which the Town of Ryde was formed into a Borough. No doubt the town had increased in wealth and population, but a borough should not be formed unless a strong case was made out. However, some of the inhabitants were desirous of the prospective luxury of paying additional rates. A Commissioner was sent down to inquire; respecting the formation of the new borough. and it was only fair that ail the parties concerned should have been heard. When the Chief Constable, however, saw the evidence that had been taken, he wrote at once to point out some inaccuracies. His letter was not even acknowledged. He (Mr. Beach) was of opinion that when a new borough was to be created it should be created by mutual agreement between the borough so to be formed and the locality surrounding it. Unless this were done, discontent was sure to prevail in consequence of the complications of interests that would arise. By removing a considerable population, as it were, out of the county, and constituting it into a separate community, it necessarily followed that increased liabilities and burdens were thrown upon the rate-payers 1632 of the county in which the borough was created. There was a public debt charged on Hampshire, but by constituting a portion of the county into a borough the area of liability was contracted. That was a matter which should have been taken into consideration. If Ryde had been constituted in a fair way into a borough, the cost of the county police would have? been reduced to the extent of the sum charged for the borough police, but the charge for the police of a most objectionable suburb of Ryde was charged on the county. Oakfield, in the parish of St. Helens, was part of the town, but had not been included within the limits of the borough. The interests of the people of the county of Hampshire ought to have been consulted as well as the interests of the borough of Ryde, but this had not been done, and he thought there was, consequently, just ground for complaint. His object in drawing attention to the subject was to press upon the Government the necessity of taking greater care in the formation of boroughs in order that injustice might not be committed, as had been the case in the present instance.
§ SIR JOHN SIMEONsaid, he must confess he had seen with surprise the announcement of the hon. Member's intention to bring forward this question. The inhabitants of Ryde considered it to their advantage to secure the right of municipal government, and control over their own police and rates, and they had taken the usual mode of accomplishing that object. An exhaustive inquiry had been held, which lasted two days, and a charter had been granted; and there was nothing more to be said on the subject. In wealth and population Ryde had increased greatly during the last ten years, and was now one of the most important towns in Hampshire, as appeared by the statistical returns. Could it, then, be wondered at that the people of Ryde should desire to obtain the prestige resulting from its conversion into a borough? Ryde was constituted a borough in 1868; and therefore it was not the present Home Secretary, but his predecessor, who was answerable for what had been done.
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHsaid, he wished to point out that his hon. Relative (Mr. Beach) did not object to Ryde having been made a borough, his complaint being that the boundaries of 1633 the borough had not been sufficiently extended. He hoped the Secretary of State for the Home Department would consider whether it was advisable that boroughs should be constituted throughout the country with separate police jurisdiction, which tended to impede the due administration of justice.
MR. BRUCEsaid, the whole of the proceedings of which the hon. Gentleman complained were conducted, not by the Home Office, but by the Privy Council Office, under the late Government. He might however remark that, under the terms of the Commission, the districts which had been referred to could not, according to the report of Captain Donovan, be included in the borough: and he was bound to add that the proceedings under the late Government were conducted with perfect fairness.