§ MR. SNAPE (Lancashire, S.E., Heywood)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been called to the dispute between the Rawtenstall Corporation and the Haslingden Board of Guardians, in consequence of which a tramp tailor, stricken with small-pox in a lodging-house containing 40 or 50 inmates, who was ordered on Tuesday last into the hospital by the Medical Officer of Health, but could not gain admission, was not allowed to re-enter the lodging house; whether the man suffering from this dangerous disease was then seen drinking at night in the Queen Vaults, Rawtenstall, and afterwards slept at a common lodging-house at Newchurch, disappearing next morning and disseminating infection wherever he went; and whether the authorities responsible can be made accountable for neglect of duty?
§ *MR. SHAW-LEFEVREMy attention has been drawn to this case, and I believe that the facts as regards the man 800 referred to wandering about whilst suffering from small-pox, and being a source of serious danger to those with whom he came in contact, are substantially true. It is greatly to be regretted that arrangements were not made for the removal of the man to the hospital of the Corporation, and so far as I can learn it was in consequence of differences between the Corporation and the Board of Guardians as to the rate of payment to be made for the maintenance of pauper patients in the hospital that this difficulty arose. An Inspector of the Board has been making inquiries in the district as to the case, and I learn from him that a special meeting of the Guardians and also a meeting of the Corporation will be held to-morrow, when I trust such arrangements will be made between the two authorities as will render impossible a repetition of such a scandal.