§ MR. LEAKE (Lancashire, S.E., Radcliffe)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if it has been brought to his knowledge that considerable regret and dissatisfaction have been excited in the country by the prohibition of the practice of giving to local newspapers a list of the local deaths, marriages, and births, which practice has been customary for a period of 30 years; if he is aware that the Local Board of Radcliffe, at their last meeting, passed a resolution requesting the Member for the Division to ask the question in the House of Commons why the facilities for obtaining such information have been withdrawn; and if he could reconsider the decision on the subject?
§ MR. MATTHEWSOn behalf of my right hon. Friend, who is unable to be present, I beg to answer the question for him. I have no information that there is any such dissatisfaction in the country as is suggested in the question with regard to the prohibition of registrars of births, deaths, and marriages furnishing local newspapers with particulars of the cases registered by them. 123 I am strongly of opinion that when a statutory duty is imposed upon persons to furnish information for registration for public purposes, they have good cause to complain if the officers who act as registrars supply the particulars to the local Press. When the facts have been thus communicated it has been in contravention of the regulations of the Registrar General, and I cannot undertake to suggest that any alteration should be made in these regulations in this respect.