§ MR. ALLSOPP () WorcesterI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he can explain why the Local Government Board, which can, under Section 83 of the Local Government Act, 1894, confer on a municipal corporation the powers of overseers, declined to accede to the applications of the Corporation of Worcester and other corporations for the transfer of such powers, seeing that, by the recent London Government Act, 1899, Parliament, in opposition to the expressed views of the Board, constituted the London municipal councils overseers of their districts.
§ MR. CHAPLINThe Local Government Board have in a large number of cases conferred on the councils of boroughs and urban districts the power to appoint overseers, and have also transferred to them certain powers of overseers; but they declined to accede to the application in this case because they are advised that their powers would not enable them to 932 make the consequential provisions which would be necessary in their opinion if a transfer was made to one of these councils of all the powers of overseers.