§ MR. HAZELL (Leicester)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, seeing that since the passing of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, there has been only one case, that at Ixworth, in Suffolk, in which a rural local authority has taken action under Part 3 of the Act to improve the dwellings of the labourers in its district, and in view of the insanitary and overcrowded condition of such dwellings in many cases, as revealed in the Reports of the Assistant Agricultural Commissioners to the Royal Commission on Labour, the Board will consider the desirability of issuing a circular to all rural local authorities throughout the kingdom directing their attention to the powers and duties conferred upon them by that Act.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Chaplin,) Lincolnshire, SleafordI introduced a Bill a few days since which, among other 209 things, would simplify the procedure for the adoption of Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, in rural districts. I hope that it may become law during the session, and it would be more advisable, I think, to wait till then before issuing a circular to the local authorities again on this subject, which the Department has done already on a former occasion.