§ Mr. CLOUGHasked the President of the Local Government Board whether he has received a communication from the West Riding of Yorkshire Mill Owners' Association requesting him to suspend the administration of the Rivers. Pollution Acts until Parliament can find time to alter the existing law, and thus enable these mill-owners to continue to pour their trade effluents into the streams of the West Riding; whether he proposes to accede to this request; and, if so, whether he will state upon what grounds the members of this particular association are to be exempted from conforming to Acts of Parliament by constructing similar purification works to those which have been constructed at divers times during the last 15 years by other manufacturers within the same administrative area?
§ Mr. BURNSI received a communication from the association urging that it is undesirable that I should give consent to proceedings by the West Riding Rivers Board, or that local inquiries should be held in relation to proposed proceedings, until the further Report of the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal has been received and legislation has been decided upon. This communication was made to me in consequence of my having directed inquiries to be held with respect to application made to me in certain cases for consent to proceedings being taken by the Rivers Board. I have not felt able to accede to the request of the association, and I have directed that the proposed inquiries shall take place.