POOR LAW (DISSOLUTION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND ADJUSTMENTS) BILL. (Hansard, 5 August 1903)

LORD KENYON

My Lords, the only object of this Bill is to remedy two minor imperfections in the existing Law which have been found to cause practical difficulties. Under the Poor Law Acts unions have, in some instances, been combined into districts for the purpose of providing institutions for the maintenance and education of pauper children, The Acts only enable a district of this kind to be dissolved if it is contained wholly or partly in the Metropolis. There are at present cases where it is desirable that some of these districts which are wholly outside the Metropolis should be dissolved. Clause 1 of the Bill will enable this to be done. Where areas are altered under the Poor Law Acts, the necessary adjustments between the unions and parishes concerned have to be made by the Local Government Board. Circumstances have much altered since the enactments on this subject were passed, and difficulties have 1571 arisen in the working of them which have led to litigation. Where areas are altered under the Local Government Act, 1888, the adjustments are settled by agreement between the local authorities affected, or in default by arbitration. The provisions in the Act of 1888 with regard to adjustments are much more elastic than those in the Poor Law Acts, and it is proposed by Clause 2 of the Bill to apply them to adjustments under those Acts. Sub-clause 1 of Clause 2 accordingly makes Section 62 of the Local Government Act, 1888, applicable to such adjustments, the modifications which are set out in the first schedule being merely consequential and necessary for adapting the provisions of the section to the circumstances of guardians, boards of management and parochial authorities. Clause 3 and the second schedule merely repeal the existing provisions, with regard to these adjustments, which will be rendered unnecessary. The net result of Clauses 2 and 3 is to make the ordinary methods of adjustment, which now apply to all the various alterations of area which are constantly taking place under the Local Government Acts, applicable to the case of alterations of areas under the Poor Law Acts in place of the cumbrous, obsolete and imperfect methods of those Acts. The Bill passed the House of Commons without alteration or objection, and I beg to move that it be read a second time.