§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUasked the President of the Local Government Board, How he proposes to fill the blank in Clause 19 of the Public Health Bill; whether the Port of London extends from Cricklade to the Nore; and, what sanitary authority he proposes to put over the Port of London, or whether it will be the Commissioners of the River Thames, under whose jurisdiction the whole river basin or watershed is now placed; and, if so, whether he intends that such an authority should govern other ports (as Falmouth), which are many miles in length?
§ MR. STANSFELDsaid, in reply, that the present limits of the Port of London were, eastward, far beyond the Nore, and westward practially as far as Teddington Lock. As to the blank in the Public Health Bill with reference to the Port of London, he intended to fill it up by indicating in the clause itself the body which should be the sanitary authority for the Port of London. As to the other ports, he proposed to take power to constitute any local sanitary authorities the port sanitary authorities under the Bill, after inquiry had been made into the exigencies and conditions of those ports. As to the metropolis, it might probably be thought desirable that the sanitary authority should be fixed by the House, and not by the Local Government Board, and it was on that account that he had left a blank in the Bill, in order that he might have an opportunity of ascertaining the opinion of London on that subject.