§ MR. OCTAVIUS V. MORGAN (Battersea)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to proceedings which have been instituted by the Vestry of the Parish of St. Mary, Battersea, against Messrs, Hudson and Covington, under the provisions of the Nuisances Removal Act, 1855, 18 and 19 Vic, cap. 121, before the Magistrate sitting at the Wandsworth Police Court, for the purpose of obtaining an order prohibiting the nuisance arising from the deposit of house refuse, &c, on premises in Victoria Road, Battersea; and whether, bearing in mind that the population of the Metropolis has about doubled, while in the same time the population of Battersea has grown from 11,000 to nearly 200,000 since the Act referred to was passed, he will state whether Her Majesty's Government intend to take steps with a view to the insertion of a clause in either the Infectious Disease (Prevention) or the Public Health (London) Consolidation Bills, now under the consideration of the Standing Committee on General Bills of the House of Lords, prohibiting the sorting, sifting, or accumulation of refuse in any part of the metropolitan area?
§ * THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. RITCHIE,) Tower Hamlets, St. George'sI am informed that the Vestry of St. Mary, Battersea, are instituting proceedings under the Nuisance Removal Acts against the occupier of certain lands for creating a nuisance by the deposit of 331 house refuse and other offensive matter. No decision in the case has, so far as I am aware, been as yet obtained. I may remind the hon. Member that the Infectious Disease Prevention Bill has been passed in the House of Commons, and was read the third time in the House of Lords on the 17th instant, and that there is no Public Health (London) Consolidation Bill at present before the House. Consequently, the Government cannot, apart from any other consideration, act upon his suggestion.