§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL (Kirkcaldy, &c.)asked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether, since he has interfered to secure sufficient space and air for new buildings at Oxford, he will intervene in like manner in the Metropolis; whether he is aware that the recently built large houses in Palace Gate and De Vere Gardens, Kensington, were allowed to be crowded together back to back with no more than shafts between those two streets; and, whether, in view of the fact that the supervision of all buildings in the Metro 6 polis is entrusted to the Metropolitan Board alone, and that their functions are necessarily delegated to subordinates, who are allowed to take fees, he will consider, during the Recess, the propriety of introducing in English towns and the various local areas in the Metropolis some regular authority to supervise buildings, like the Dean of Guilds' Courts in Scotland?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Mr. RITCHIE) (Tower Hamlets, St. George's), in reply, said, the area and spaces around houses in the Metropolis were regulated by statutory provisions conferred on the Metropolitan Board of Works, in regard to which the Local Government Board had no power to interfere, the Board of Works being practically independent in this matter. Of his own personal knowledge, he could confirm the hon. Gentleman's proposition respecting the now houses at Kensington. Urban Sanitary Authorities possessed all necessary powers in connection with the erection of buildings; and, beyond promising to bring the matter before the Metropolitan Board of Works, he could give no undertaking on the subject.