§ A local registration authority may for the purposes of this Act use free of charge any room which may be used for the purposes of taking a poll at a Parliamentary election, subject, however, to the conditions and provisions subject to which it may be so used.
508§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."
§ Mr. KINGI beg to oppose the Clause. I consider that there are very good reasons indeed for doing so. If the local authority wants a school at all, it will not want it for one day; it will want it for a considerable time. The Ballot Act, Section 19, only empowers the authority that takes an election to take the ballot in the school, which means, of course, the use of the school for one day only. If, on the other hand, the school which is required for the purpose of this Act is required at all, I cannot see but that it will be required for a very much longer period than one day. That might mean, and almost certainly would mean, breaking into the school life of the village or the school life of a district for a week, two weeks, or more, and apparently there is no power in any other authority—the education authority or the Board of Education—to stop that, which will amount to the shutting up of a school for a consider able time. No explanation was given and it was not referred to, so far as I can make out, in the course of the Second Reading of the Bill, and unless some explanation is forthcoming—
§ And, it being Eleven of the clock, the Chairman left the Chair to make his Report to the House.
§ Committee report Progress; to sit again to-morrow (Thursday).
§ The remaining Orders were read, and postponed.