§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURYasked Her Majesty's Government, Why the Secretary of State for the Home Department has abolished the annual fairs at Christchurch, notwithstanding a Petition signed by 300 persons, magistrates, farmers, and inhabitants of the town and district, remonstrating against it, and sent to the Home Office, in accordance with an invitation from that Department to them to state whether they objected to the abolition of the said fairs? There were two annual fairs at Christchurch, which was the centre of a purely agricultural district of considerable extent, and were of great importance to the locality. The owners of the fairs were burgesses elected not by a popular vote, but by each other; but with a total disregard of the local prejudices and necessities, they had petitioned the Secretary of State in the beginning of February to abolish the fairs. A counter remonstrance had been got up against this Petition, and the same had been forwarded to the Home Office. Neither the lord of the manor, nor any of the magistrates petitioned for the abolition of the fairs.
THE EARL OF MORLEYsaid, the facts of the case as stated by the noble Earl were strictly correct. The memorial referred to by the noble Earl did not reach the hands of the Home Secretary until the order for the abolition of the fairs had been made. If the ownership was in the lord of the manor, the order as regarded these fairs would be ultra vires. He proposed that an inquiry should take place into the question, and he could assure the noble Earl that the matter should receive the attention of the Home Secretary.