§ MR. P. A. TAYLORasked the President of the Local Government Board, If he is aware that another summons has been issued against Mr. Pearce, of Andover, for non-compliance with the Vaccination Act, he having already suffered twenty-two previous convictions; and 1884 whether he proposes to take any steps in the matter?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH, in reply, said, he was aware that Mr. Pearce had been prosecuted a number of times for non-compliance with the provisions of the Vaccination Act. He received a complaint from Mr. Pearce in the autumn of last year, upon which he communicated with the Guardians, and their reply was that Mr. Pearce was a member of the Anti-Vaccination Society, and that they presumed the society paid the fines in his case. He communicated the views of the Local Government Board upon the subject to the Board of Guardians, which were similar to those addressed to the Evesham Guardians on the previons occasion. In May last Mr. Pearce complained of his being subjected to persecution by the Guardians, and stated that two children had then died in Andover, and that two were dying from the effects of vaccination. He caused a special inquiry to be made into the truth of the allegation by a competent medical officer, who afterwards reported that there was no reason to suppose that the deaths of these two children were caused by vaccination. He had no intention of entering further on this case, and so the Guardians had been informed. But the whole subject was one of great difficulty, and was constantly under his notice, and he could not but hope that some means would be devised by-and-by to reconcile the due execution of the law with some modification of the punishment provided for its infringement.