§ MR. KEIR HARDIE (Merthyr Tydfil)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, seeing that under the Act 42 Eliz., c. 2, and subsequent Acts, boards of guardians may, with the consent of the Local Government Board, acquire fifty acres of land in each parish upon which to set the able-bodied poor to work, and to pay them reasonable wages for their work, he will call the attention of boards of guardians to these enactments, and suggest their application as a method of relieving the rates from the burden of maintaining able-bodied men and women in idleness.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe enactments referred to have for many years been considered as obsolete, and have not been acted upon by boards of guardians since the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834. I could not undertake to comply with the suggestion of the hon. Member that the attention of 1180 boards of guardians should be called to them.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEThe right hon. Gentleman says these enactments are obsolete, but could not any local authority put them into operation if it chose?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThere would be nothing illegal in so doing; but if I were, as requested, to call attention to them it might be thought I was advising that they be enforced.
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)On what ground is an Act of Parliament considered obsolete? Is the Act of Edward III obsolete?
§ [No Answer was returned.]