Artillery Volunteers, stationed at Southend-on-Sea, have only two 15-pounders, and that consequently drill cannot be carried out by the majority of the men attending for the purpose; whether arrangements can be made to supply these companies with a sufficient number of guns; whether he is aware that these companies are without the necessary stores for their guns, and, in particular, without rammers, aiming posts, sights for back-laying, clinometer, and rangefinder; and whether steps can be taken to supply them with these stores. (Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) The guns in question form part of the number allotted to the general defence of the Thames and Medway Command, and the distribution to the different companies of the corps was made in accordance with the wishes of the commanding officer of the corps. The number cannot be increased. The completion of guns in a command, with their approved stores, rests with the general officer commanding, and steps had already been taken in this instance. No complaint has been received from the corps. The Colonial Conference and Treatment of Indians in British Colonies. MR. SCOTT (Ashton-under-Lyne): To ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the question of the status and treatment of His Majesty's Indian subjects in British Colonies has been included in the agenda submitted by the Imperial Government to the Imperial Colonial Conference about to be held; and, if not, whether, in view of the importance of the matter and the interest it has aroused both here and in India, the Government will take steps to bring the question before the Conference. (Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) I should be glad if the hon. Member would kindly refer to the Answer that I gave to a similar Question on the 5th instant.† Printing of Telegraph Forms in Ireland. MR. FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick): To ask the Postmaster-General whether † See Col. 613. he can arrange that the supply of the 12,000,000 telegram forms per year, for use in Ireland from the postal authorities in London, can be given to an Irish printing house; and whether he is aware that several printing establishments in Dublin would be willing to provide adequate plant for the execution of this work. (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I am informed that the existing contracts provide for the supply of all telegram forms to the General Post Office, and they are thence distributed over the United Kingdom as required. No separate arrangement is made for Ireland; but the cost of printing the number mentioned in the hon. Member's Question would be under £150 a year. I see no reason for making the change which he proposes. Salaries of English and Irish County Court Judges. MR. FIELD: To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will state the amount of salary allowed to a county court Judge in Ireland and England respectively; the amount of daily remuneration allowed to a deputy county court Judge in Ireland and England respectively; and whether this daily remuneration in either country is paid by the Crown or by the county court Judge for whom the deputy is acting. (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The salary is £1,500 in England, and £1,400 in Ireland. Deputies, in case of illness, are paid out of the salary of the Judge in both countries. I understand that the rate of payment is 4 guineas a day in England, and that in Ireland it varies from 5 to 10 guineas a day according to the duration of the employment, etc. Receipts of the National Physical MR. O. C. PHILIPPS (Pembroke and Haverfordwest): To ask the Secretary to the Treasury, what have been the receipts of the National Physical Laboratory for each of the last three years respectively, from fees, from grants, from Government, and from other sources. 1218 (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I have ing statement of their receipts for the received from the Laboratory the follow- last three calendar years : Promotions in the Accountant's Depart ment, Board of Works, Dublin. MR. DELANY (Queen's County, Ossory): To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that, in the recent promotions in the Accountant's Department, Board of Works, Dublin, the staff officer who obtained the post vacated by the present accountant was placed there over the heads of at least three others who had longer service under the Board, and who were more competent to fill the position; and whether, in view of the fact that one of these gentlemen was on a former occasion recommended for a first-class clerkship, he will ask the Board of Works to explain their inconsistency in this matter. (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) If the hon. Member refers to the case of Mr. Sidwell, I have nothing to add to the reply given by my predecessor on 17th May last. There have been no subsequent promotions in the Accountant's Department. 13,637 0 5 14,319 4 10 for Sheffield (Hallam Division), as Church Estates Commissioner, whether he will say what are the sums which have been spent directly or indirectly in commissions by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in each of the ten years last past; and what is the largest sum in each year so paid to any one person or firm. (Answered by Mr. Stuart-Wortley.) The Answers given to the hon. Member's Questions of 1st November and 27th November last by the hon. Member for East Bristol contain the facts as to the commissions paid by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to their agents, and no other commisions, except the architects' charges set out in the accounts appended to the Report for Parliament and the usual brokers' charges on dealings with stock, are paid directly or indirectly by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Irish Ordnance Survey. MR. FIELD: To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the Commissions Paid by the Church Estates President of the Board of Agriculture, Commissioners. MR. WEDGWOOD (Newcastle-underLyme): To ask the right hon. Member + See (4) Debates, clvii., 634. whether it is intended to have all the work connected with the Ordnance Survey in Ireland carried out in that See (4) Debates, clxiii., 1342-3; clxv., 1433. country; and whether the supervision and, if any, whether he can state the particular localities in which the outbreak occurred and the number of cattle and sheep affected. and arrangement of this work will, in future, be transferred to an Irish depart ment. DR. COOPER (Southwark, Bermondsey) To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether he can give the number of cattle and sheep landed and killed at the Deptford foreign cattle market during the year ending 31st December, 1906, the particular countries from which the cattle and sheep were imported, and the number from each country. (Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) During the year 1906, 60,784 cattle from Canada, 138,722 cattle from the United States, and 2,375 sheep from Canada were landed and killed at Deptford. (Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) No cases of foot-and-mouth disease were confirmed in Denmark in 1906. In the latter part of the year nine outbreaks occurred in the province of Limburg, in Holland, 104 animals being affected. With regard to Germany a large number of cases were confirmed in the west and north-west of the country during 1906, but I um unable to state without further inquiry the actual numbers in the various provinces mentioned by my hon. friend. I shall be happy, however, to make further inquiry on the subject, and I will acquaint my hon. friend with the result. Inspection of Imported Boneless Meat. MR. FIELD: To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he has made any arrangement for the inspection of imported boneless meat; whether he has made any inquiries respecting how it is prepared; whether it is inspected before being frozen; whether he can state how it is disposed of in this country; and whether it is used extensively in the manufacture of pork sausages. (Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I have no authority to make an arrangement of the kind referred to in the first part of the Question in the absence of such powers as are proposed to be given by the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) Bill now before the House. I have caused inquiries to be made as to the preparation of boneless meat. It is of course liable to whatever inspection is required by the laws of the country from which it comes, and packages of it DR. COOPER: To ask the hon. frequently bear labels stating that inMember for South Somerset, as repre- spection has taken place, presumably senting the President of the Board of before freezing. I understand that imAgriculture, if he is in a position to state ported boneless meat is supplied to makers whether any cattle or sheep have been of various meat preparations in this officially reported as suffering from country, and that imported boneless foot-and-mouth disease in Denmark, pork is employed in the manufacture of Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Westphalia, pork sausages. The Local Government the Rhine Provinces, or Holland, during Board's inspector of foods ascertained that the year ending 31st December, 1906; in 1905 the importation of the kind of Foot-and-mouth Disease. boneless pork specially used for sausage pressure, and steps are now being taken making amounted to about 130 tons. to provide certain scattered homes. I shall not lose sight of the subject. SIR WALTER FOSTER (Derbyshire, Ilkeston): To ask the President of the Local Government Board if he is aware that, owing to continued overcrowding in the workhouse school belonging to the Brentford Board of Guardians, an outbreak of ophthalmia occurred in November, 1904; that in September, 1906, a second outbreak, affecting over 130 children, occurred; and that during January last an outbreak of diphtheria, affecting over fifty children, some of whom died, occurred; and whether he will urge upon the guardians the necessity of boarding-out within and beyond the union the children eligible for that method, and of hastening the arrangements for placing others in scattered homes within the union in order to relieve the long-standing overcrowding of the school. (Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I am aware of the facts as to the outbreaks referred to and that from time to time there has been overcrowding in the school. I am very desirous that measures should be taken to prevent future overcrowding in respect of the children, and I understand that the guardians have had various schemes before them for providing further accommodation for them. They have met with difficulties in the matter, but various arrangements have been made to reduce the Annual Report of Local Government MR. PIKE PEASE (Darlington): To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, with a view to the convenience of guardians, councillors, and other officials, he will consider the advisability of publishing the annual Report of the Board in two parts, so that those engaged in either branch of local government could purchase the portion relating to their work only; and whether he will consider the advisability of improving the compiling of this Report by explaining the figures and facts dealing with Poor Law administration. (Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I have under consideration the proposal referred to in the former part of the Question, and I shall be prepared also to consider any suggestions which may be made to me as to that referred to in the latter part of it. Railway and Shipping Rates. MR. FIELD: To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he will cause an inquiry to be made through the Railway Department of the Board of Trade, asking the principal railway and shipping companies to furnish detailed information respecting import through rates, and likewise furnish the inland railway charges allowed on those through rates, and at the same time to obtain definite information respecting the charges made to Home traders for the inland carriage of goods the same distance to centres of population. (Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) I am taking steps to obtain information from railway companies and traders with regard to railway rates and other matters which I hope will throw light on the points referred to in the Question. The Law of Copyright. MR. WATERLOW (Islington, N.): To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether, with a view to the early publication at popular prices of reprints, in as (Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) There are ten match factories in the country, or eleven, if one is included which only works intermittently. cording to the latest Returns, those for 1904, the number of persons employed in the ten first mentioned factories was 3,188. Two of these ten factories are occupied exclusively in manufacturing matches without white phosphorus, while three more of them manufacture matches Increased Pay for Labourers at Royal without white phosphorus on a small Naval Hospital, Haslar. COLONEL HARRISON - BROADLEY (Yorkshire, E.R., Howdenshire): To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if he can explain why the labourers at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, are not included in the recent rise of wages of 1s. per week which has been granted to the labourers employed at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard and at other naval establishments; and whether a favourable answer can be returned to the petition which they addressed to the Admiralty on this subject. scale, in addition to matches with white phosphorus. In the two factories which manufacture non white phosphorus matches exclusively 921 persons were returned as employed in 1904; the number so employed in the three factories partially engaged in the same manufacture could not be ascertained without further inquiries. I may point out that many of the persons employed in the factories which manufacture white phosphorus matches are not exposed to the phosphorus. I have laid upon the Table of the House a Report on the recent case of phosphorus poisoning at Messrs. More (Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) | lands, which also contains some observaThis increase has now been granted. tions upon the general question. I am |