§ Mr. EdeI beg to move, in page 13, line 38, after "London," insert:
or of any metropolitan borough contiguous thereto.This is a drafting Amendment which is necessary in order to make quite clear that two addresses, one in the City and the other in a contiguous metropolitan borough, respectively, would rank as being in the combined area of two contiguous metropolitan boroughs.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed "That the Clause, as amended, stand part of the Bill."
Mr. E. P. SmithI rise to repeat a question which I put earlier and which the right hon. Gentleman said he would answer when we reached Clause 20. I should be grateful if he would tell us the legal definition of the words "rural parish" used in paragraph (e) in this connection.
§ Mr. EdeI cannot answer for Scotland in this matter because their local government is so different from ours. But this Parliament does occasionally deal with Scottish matters, and I would not like some Scottish Members to intervene to say that my definition was inadequate as applying to that country. If there is any Scottish point, I have no doubt that my hon. Friend the Joint Under-Secretary of State will deal with it. A rural parish in England and Wales is an area covered either by a parish council or a parish meeting. It is a civil parish and not an ecclesiastical one. I think the definition is given in the Local Government Act, 1933. It is any area that has a parish council or, if its population is not sufficient to have a parish council, has a parish meeting. Such an area is regarded as a parish for the purposes of this Bill.
§ Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.