§ SIR GEORGE FARDELL (Paddington, S.)To ask the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been drawn to a certificate of the district auditor sanctioning a charge against the general rate of the borough of Camberwell in respect of superannuation allowance granted by the Council of that Borough to a road sweeper who had been continuously employed by the Vestry and Borough Council for seventeen years, the auditor being of opinion that as the sweeper in question had discharged a definable office in the service of the Vestry and Borough Council he became, in the absence of any definition to the contrary, an officer within the meaning of the Superannuation (Metropolis) Act, 1866; and whether the Local Government Board will sanction the Metropolitan Borough Councils granting similar allowances in the future until such time as the Acts relating to superannuation have been amended.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) My attention has been called to the case referred to. I have no authority to decide the legal point involved except upon an appeal to me against the auditor's decision as to some particular charge of the kind mentioned; but I may state that, so far as an opinion can at present be formed on the subject, I am advised that the expenditure in question was lawful. This was the view taken by the auditor, and he accordingly allowed the charge in the accounts. The only effect of sanction on my part to any such expenditure would be to prevent the auditor from disallowing it, and in the circumstances above stated there seems to be no need for any such sanction.