§ MR. DILLONI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that Mr. Bloomfield, clerk to the Chorlton Board of Guardians, and returning officer for the election of guardians for the township of Hulme, has, in spite of the request of the managers,. persisted in fixing St. Wilfrid's School as polling place for the election to be held on the 27th instant, although he could have obtained St. Michael's Board School, within 30 yards of St. Wilfrid's, without difficulty; whether he is aware that it was represented to Mr. Bloomfield that St. Wilfrid's School was in use outside school 151 hours as a committee room for the Roman Catholic candidate, and that to deprive them of their committee room on the day of election would seriously interfere with the election; and whether the Local Government Board will represent to Mr. Bloomfield the desirability of selecting some other polling station than St. Wilfrid's School?
MR. RUSSELLThe attention of the Local Government Board has been called to the case referred to in the Question. Section 6 of the Ballot Act, 1872, as applied to the election of guardians, empowering the returning officer to use, free of charge, for the purpose of taking the poll or counting the votes at an election of guardians, any room in a school receiving a grant out of moneys provided by Parliament. The matter is not one in which the Local Government Board have any jurisdiction whatever, and it does not appear to them that they could intervene with regard to it.