§ MR. AKROYDasked the Vice President of the Committee of Council, If his attention has been called to the heavy charge of the returning officer for the election of seven members to the School Board of the small parish of Hinckley, in the county of Leicester, amounting to £150, equivalent to a rate of nearly threepence in the pound, until subsequently reduced to £125; whether there be no appeal beyond the Poor Law Auditor; and, whether he would consider the feasibility of framing a scale of charges, on the basis of the population or the number of voters, so that the parishioners should not be left in the hands of the auditor as the sole court of appeal?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER,in reply, said, his attention had been called to the charge to which allusion was made. It could hardly be said that the election was for a small parish. Hinckley having 7,000 inhabitants; but, undoubtedly, it was a heavy charge, though not amounting to more than 2d. not 3d. in the pound. The Local Government Board were making inquiries of the auditor why he had allowed it, and no answer had yet been received. A new register had to be made. The ratepayers had an appeal to the Local Government Board; he was carefully con- 636 sidering with his noble Friend (the Marquess of Ripon) and the Local Government Board, whether any change could be made in that particular with regard to elections.