§ SIR WALTER FOSTER (Derbyshire, Ilkeston)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, having regard to the letter of 14th November, 1907, sent by the Local Government Board to the parish council of Elstree, which states that as regards the expenses to be taken into account in fixing the rents of the allotments, the Board may state that they have been advised by the Law Officers of the Crown that the expenses referred to in Section 2 (2) of the Allotments Act, 1887, while including the interest payable upon the purchase money, do not include the annual instalments of principal or payments to a sinking fund in cases where the land has been acquired by means of a loan, and to the letter of 1st December, 1908, sent by the Local Government Board to the North Bromsgrove Urban District Council, which states that although the point is not free from doubt they consider the urban district council of North Bromsgrove need not pay the instalments of principal in respect of the loan in question out of the rent to be received from the tenants of the allotments, the Local Government Board will state, to prevent further confusion on this point in the country, that for the future, in fixing the rents of the allotments or small holdings in cases where the land has been acquired by means of a loan, the expenses to be taken into account should not include the annual instalments of principal or payments to a sinking fund, and that a council may meet the charge for the annual instalment of principal or payment to a sinking fund from the county or general district rate, as the case may be, and that a district auditor will not be entitled to object to a council so doing.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I do not think I can say more than that, in dealing with an application for sanction to a loan for the purchase of land for allotments or small holdings, the Local Government Board would not consider it necessary for it to be shown that the 939 payments to be made in respect of the principle of the loan would be met out of the rents to be received from the tenants. The Board have no reason to anticipate that a district auditor would take a different view from that upon which they act in this matter.