§ MR. LONGasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether any instructions have been issued to overseers defining their duties under "The Divided Parishes Act, 1876," as amended by "The Poor Law Act, 1879," with regard to the registration of voters in those parishes which have hitherto formed part of Parliamentary boroughs, and which may now be included in the county limits; and, whether any change in the mode of preparing the lists of voters in such parishes will be necessitated by the Acts referred to?
MR. GEORGE RUSSELLSir, the Local Government Board have not issued any instructions to overseers with regard to their duties in respect of the registration of voters in the case of detached parts of parishes included in Parliamentary boroughs, which, under the Divided Parishes Acts of 1876 and 1879, have become amalgamated with parishes within the county limits. In the case of "Foster v. Medwin," it was held, in the Common Pleas Division of the High Court of Justice, that the detached part of a parish included in the Parliamentary borough of Shoreham did not become part of the Parliamentary borough of Horsham, which is conterminous with the parish of Horsham, by being added to that parish. According to the principle of that decision, a part of a parish contained in a Parliamentary borough which is added to a parish, which, for the purpose of the Parliamentary franchise, is included in the county, continues to form part of the Parliamentary borough. The amalgamation, although not altering the right of voting, will have some effect on the duty of the overseers in regard to the preparation of the lists, as the list of borough voters in the amalgamated part will have to be put up at the parish church and other places in the parish with which it is amalgamated; and such lists will, of course, have to be separate lists, relating only to the part of the parish which is within the Parliamentary borough.