§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANEasked the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works, Whether, under the Metropolis Local Management Act, powers were given to the Metropolitan Board of Works not only for the purposes of sewerage and drainage, but also in respect of the paving, cleansing, and lighting of the Metropolis; and, if so, whether his attention has been drawn to the state of the streets in some parts of the Metropolis, especially in the Knightsbridge district; and, whether some better arrangement cannot be made for cleans- 424 ing and purifying the great thorough-fares?
SIR JAMES HOGGSir, in answer to the Question of my hon. Friend, I have to inform him that under the Metropolis Local Management Acts the powers as to paving, watering, and lighting streets were expressly placed under the control and management of the Vestries and District Boards, and not of the Metropolitan Board of Works; and that in every Act extending the powers of the Metropolitan Board as to making new streets, the obligation has been put on the last-named Board to give up the streets when completed to the Vestries and District Boards, to be managed by them as to paving, watering, and lighting. I should state that as regards two of the Thames Embankment roadways these provisions originally inserted in the Acts have been altered by Parliament, and they have been placed under the control of the Metropolitan Board for all purposes.