§ MR. A. GRIFFITH-BOSCAWEN (Kent, Tunbridge)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the great amount of trouble and expense to which many parishes have recently been put by the fact that one man may demand a poll at parish meetings for the election to parish councils; and whether the Government will take steps to amend the Local Government Act 1893, so that no poll can be held unless at least five electors demand it?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. HENRY CHAPLIN,) Lincolnshire, LleafordI am quite alive to the inconvenience of the existing arrangement, whereby one man may demand a poll at parish meetings for the election to parish councils, and, without pledging myself to the precise number, I propose to alter the existing practice before the polls occur again in the direction suggested.