(NO. 117.) COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 26 June 1882)

LORD BALFOUR

, who had the following Amendment on the Paper:—In page 1, lines 25 and 26, leave out ("or the parochial board of any parish or combination interested"); page 2, line 1, after ("supply") insert ("or"), and after ("magistrates") leave out ("or parochial board"); line 2, leave out ("modify") and insert ("annul"), said, its object was to provide means whereby the districts into which Scotland was divided for lunacy purposes might be varied. There was formerly a power vested in the prison boards to petition the lunacy boards to vary their districts when the necessity arose. As their Lordships were aware, however, prison boards had now ceased to exist in the counties of Scotland, and it would be necessary to appoint some other body to exercise the power formerly belonging to the prison boards. The Bill proposed that the commissioners of supply in counties, and the magistrates in burghs, should exercise that 371 power. That, he ventured to think, was perfectly right, because they were the nearest representatives of the old prison boards; but the Bill further provided that the parochial board of any parish interested should also have power to petition for this purpose. He had asked, when the Bill was before the House the other day, why it was necessary to give this power to the parochial boards, because, heretofore, they had not been a unit—if he might use the expression—in the administration of the Lunacy Acts in Scotland, and it seemed to him a novel and unnecessary power to give to bodies constituted as parochial boards in Scotland were; and in view of getting their Lordships' opinion on the point, he had given Notice of the Amendment that stood in his name on the Paper that day. Since he gave that Notice, however, it had been represented to him that there were some large parishes which ought to have this power, as they provided asylums of their own, the population being sufficient to warrant them in doing so. He ventured to think that that was no reason why all parochial boards in Scotland should have that power given to them, because it was necessary to give it to a few large parishes. Therefore, he should be inclined to move his Amendment, unless he heard from the noble Earl who bad charge of the Bill (the Earl of Dalhousie) that the Government would be prepared to assent to words that would limit this power to petitioning to boards which were large-sized, or had already built asylums of their own. For the sake of raising the question, therefore, he begged to move the Amendment that stood in his name; but if the Government were prepared to accept a modification of the clause he would not press it.