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196
A letter from the Assistant Secretary to the Local
Government Board was laid before your Committee, which
stated that it appeared to the Board that Section 3 (XII.)
of the Local Government Act, 1888, only transferred to the
County Council the powers of the Quarter Sessions as to
the division of the County into Polling Districts. In the
case of a Parliamentary Borough, however, no part of which
was situate in a Municipal Borough, the Local Authority
for dividing the Borough into Polling Districts were, prior
to the passing of the Local Government Act, the Justices of
the Peace of the Petty Sessional Division in which the
Borough was situate : or if the Borough was situate in, or
comprised more than one Petty Sessional Division, then the
Justices in General or Quarter Sessions having jurisdiction
over such Borough, or the greater part thereof in area (see
30 and 31 Vic., Cap. 102, Sec. 34 ; and 31 and 32 Vic., Cap58,
Sec. 18). If, therefore, the Parliamentary Borough of
Camberwell is situate in one Petty Sessional Division, the
Justices of that Division, and not the London County
Council, would appear to be the Local Authority to divide
the Borough into Polling Districts.
Your Committee have also received a letter from the
Clerk to the London County Council, in reply to a letter
from the Vestry Clerk addressed to them on the subject, in
which it is stated, that the late Metropolitan Board of
Works was advised, and always acted upon the advice, that
when a Parish was once divided into Wards under the
Metropolis Management Acts, the Board had no power to
alter or increase the number of Wards, and the Local
Government Act, 1888, confers no new powers in this
respect upon the Council. As regards the Polling Districts,
the Council has no power to interfere with the Polling