§ MR. COGHILL (Newcastle-under-Lyme)asked the hon. Member for the Knutsford Division of Cheshire, Whether, having regard to the very small space in the Embankment Gardens left for grass plots and flower beds, the Metropolitan Board of Works will refrain from further diminishing that space by placing in them large statues of very doubtful artistic merit; and, whether the Board will consider the advisability of placing the statues of Burns and Raikes in the Shaftesbury Avenue, or some other thoroughfare, where they would not interfere with any flower beds or grass plots?
§ MR. TATTON EGERTON (Cheshire, Knutsford)I cannot, I am afraid, give the hon. Member a pledge that the Metropolitan Board will allow no more statues to be placed in the Embankment Gardens; but I may safely say that, in the event of the Board's permission being asked for another statue to be placed there, the Board, in considering the application, will have regard to the primary purpose for which the Gardens are intended, and which the hon. Member has in view. The particular statues referred to in this Question, although placed in the Gardens with the Board's consent, were not erected by the Board, or at the Board's expense. The Board, I may say, has no power to incur expenditure in removing these statues to some other part of London, even if such a proceeding were thought desirable.