§ MR. KIMBER (Wandsworth)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he will extend the instructions of the gentleman whom he has authorised to hold the public inquiry with reference to the proposed fever hospital on Tooting Common, so as to allow them to receive evidence not only that the proposed site is objectionable in itself, but also evidence (which they have not felt able under their existing instructions to receive) that the site is inferior to other sites which are obtainable in the same district at a less cost to the public purse, and not open to the same objections; and, if there be any rule or reason against extending such instructions, whether he will allow such evidence to be laid before himself afterwards?
§ MR. H. H. FOWLERThe experienced Inspectors who conducted the inquiry as to the proposed fever hospital acted in accordance with the practice of the Local Government Board, and I see no reason for interfering with their dis- 1442 cretion. The inquiry was limited to the proposal to acquire a specified site, and such an inquiry could not properly have been extended to other sites, in respect of which there was no proposal of the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District before the Local Government Board, and with regard to which no notice had been given to those interested in the localities where the sites are situate. Any information that can be given as to sites which are available for hospital purposes, and which are considered to be more suitable than the site in question, should be submitted in the first instance to the Asylum Managers, and I shall be prepared to receive and consider a copy of any communication which may be addressed to the Managers on the subject.