successful candidates, obtain the number | the overseers when underground mining of marks required to qualify; but such operations are about to be extended from candidates have not been regarded as one parish to another, so that the overhaving a claim to be appointed to any seers of the parish newly affected may future vacancies that may arise, and the be enabled to get the necessary informahon. Member will see that to do so would tion for entering the new workings upon involve the lowering of the standard of their valuation lists. the persons appointed to the inspectorate. The gentleman whose appointment was gazetted on 11th January was a successful candidate at the examination in August last for the Home and Indian Civil Services; and he was selected from the successful candidates in that examination with a view to his filling the post of secretary to the Chief Inspector of Factories, for which special qualifications are required. The post carries with it, in addition to the ordinary salary of a junior inspector, an allowance of £50 a

year.

MR. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD Is this gentleman described as a factory inspector?

MR. GLADSTONE: Yes, Sir.

MR. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD: Has he been added to the staff?

MR. GLADSTONE: Yes, he is one of the staff.

MR. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD: Is there no difference between the work that requires technical qualifications of a factory inspector, and work which might very well be done by a first or seconddivision clerk ?

MR. GLADSTONE: Special cations are needed for this post.

MR. GLADSTONE: The power of entry and inspection is given to the inspectors to enable them to ascertain whether the provisions of the Mines Regulation Acts are being observed. It is a well-established rule that information obtained by an inspector in the course of his visits with regard to matters not connected with the discharge of his official duties is treated as confidential; and I think the hon. Member will see that any departure from this rule would affect the relations of the inspectors with the mineowners and seriously prejudice the enforcement of the Acts for the protection of the miners.

Naturalisation Fees.

MR. BYLES (Salford, N.): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department has his attention been drawn. to the increasing settlement of Jewish inhabitants in Manchester, Salford, and other large towns of the Kingdom; is he aware that many of them desire naturalisation in this country, but are precluded from obtaining it by the fees they are called upon to pay; and will he explain why these fees are maintained at a prohibitive figure.

MR. GLADSTONE: The fee for the

qualifi-grant of a certificate of naturalisation has for the last twenty years been £5. The number of certificates granted every year is considerable, varying in the last five years from 686 to 978, and there is every year in addition a certain number of refusals. The average number of grants for the five years 1892-6 was 494, and for the five years 1902-6 was 850, an increase of about 70 per cent.

MR. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD Are we to understand that this gentleman will not become a fully accredited inspector until he has passed the qualifying examination for that position?

It

MR. GLADSTONE : Yes, that applies should be remembered that an alien must to all factory inspectors.

Assessment of Mine Workings. MR. SUMMERBELL (Sunderland): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will consider the advisability of placing upon the inspector of mines the duty of notifying

live for five years in this country before he can be naturalised, and if the saving of £5 during that period presents any difficulty, that difficulty is greatly lessened by the existence of a number of agencies which enable him to accumulate the sum on payment of very small weekly subscriptions.

Slate Club Defalcations.

{COMMONS}

Questions.

248 MR. CHIOZZA MONEY (Paddington, Government Grant of £200,000 was to July last, in which he stated that the N.) I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General be in lieu of the Queen's fund, raised for if his attention has been directed to the the relief of the unemployed in 1905-6; numerous defalcations which occurred at and whether, seeing that he has still a Christmas 1906, as at previous Christ- considerable balance of the Government mases, in connection with unregistered Grant in hand, he will see his way to friendly societies and slate clubs, and if supplying the Central Unemployed Body he can see his way to introduce legisla with sufficient funds to carry on its work tion to deal with this subject. without these appeals to public and private charity.

MR. GLADSTONE: My hon. friend. has asked me to answer this Question. I fear I can add nothing to the Answer which I gave to the hon. Member in reply to a similar question which he put to me a few days ago of which I am sending him a copy.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. JOHN BURNS, Battersea): Since friend asked me my hon. a Question on subject in July last, the guardians have this hired premises in East Ham in which 153 children are now accommodated. I am, however, aware that overcrowding at the schools at Leytonstone still exists, and I have recently received a Report from the assistant inspector of the district, in which attention is called to the subject. I have brought this Report under notice of the guardians and have requested that it may receive their immediate and earnest attention, and that I may be informed of the result. My hon. friend may be assured that I shall not lose sight of the matter.

London Unemployed. MR. THORNE: I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been called to the appeal from the Central Unemployed Body for London asking for charitable contributions to the funds of that body for providing work for the unemployed; whether such an appeal is in keeping with the speech made by him on 19th

appeal referred to. The Unemployed MR. JOHN BURNS: I have seen the Workmen Act contemplates that the expenses incurred by the local bodies under it in providing or contributing to the provision of temporary work will be defrayed out of voluntary contribua means whereby the voluntary contributions. The object of the Grant was to afford tions might be supplemented in cases where there was exceptional need for assistance in meeting the expenses to which I have referred. It was not intended that these contributions should be superseded. I am not aware that my speech of 19th July. last contains anything contrary to this view.

to £6,000 have already been paid out MR. JOHN BURNS: Sums amounting of the Grant in respect of the works mentioned in the Question. When forwarding the recent payment of £3,000 I asked for certain information, and upon receipt of it, I shall be prepared to properly be granted in respect of these consider whether a further sum works.

can

the Grant of £7,000 was sent to the
MR. THORNE: Is it not a fact that
Treasurer of the Committee on Thursday
last, and not on Tuesday, as stated by the
right hon. Gentleman in his speech in
the unemployed debate?

MR. JOHN BURNS: The money may have been sent on the Thursday, but the intention to send it and the decision so to do were come to two days sooner.

MR. THORNE: Were not the letter and cheque both dated the 21st ?

MR. JOHN BURNS: I do not know. I am more anxious about people getting the money than in asking how the money was sent.

MR. THORNE: And I am more interested as to the truth of the statements of the right hon. Gentleman.

MR. JOHN BURNS: I may say that the relations between the West Ham Distress Committee and myself are business-like, kindly, and prompt, and it is only in this House that, on occasion, the opposite is represented to be the

case.

Post Office Telephone Construction-
Wages of Navvies.

the surveyors' recommendations of officers possessing experience and knowledge of the duties of a postmaster shall have first consideration.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: I am not aware that dissatisfaction exists in the postal service owing to the appointment of London officials to provincial postmasterships. The number of such appointments conferred on officers of the central department is very small in proportion to the total number of vacancies. It is my aim to fill the appointments by the selection of the most suitable candidates, irrespective of the locality or office in which they happen to be serving. The circular to which the hon. Member refers was general in its application, and gave no indication of any special preference for provincial postmasters or chief clerks.

Teachers' Pensions.

MR. LANE-FOX (Yorkshire, W. R., Barkston Ash): I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education, what was the total sum paid from the MR. J. WARD: I beg to ask the Post-Teachers Deferred Annuity Fund in master-General whether he is aware that pensions to superannuated teachers last the contractors for constructing Post year; what is the total number of Office telephones at High Barnet and teachers now receiving such pensions; Finchley are at present paying the how many teachers are now contributing navvies engaged upon such work 6d. to this fund; and when the actuary's per hour, the trade union rate being 7d. ; | Report as to the state of the fund will be and what action, if any, he proposes to presented to Parliament. take in the matter.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF
EDUCATION (Mr. MCKENNA, Mon-
mouthshire, N.): The total sum paid from
the Deferred Annuity Fund in pensions
to superannuated teachers during the
financial year ending 31st March, 1906,
was £608. The total number of teachers
in receipt of annuities from the Fund on
31st March, 1906, was 809. It is im-
possible to state exactly the number of
teachers contributing to the fund on any
date, but it may be taken as approxi-
mately equivalent to the number of
certificated teachers
teachers in employment,
which is about 86,000. Considerable
progress has been made with the
actuarial inquiry, but I am not yet in a
position to say when the Report will be
presented.

Welsh Education Department.
MR. LLEWELYN WILLIAMS (Car
marthen District): I beg to ask the
President of the Board of Education

where the new Welsh Department of the the codes governing the instruction given Board of Education will be located; in such schools. whether Mr. Owen M. Edwards or Mr. Alfred T. Davies, or both of them, will reside in London; if not, where; whether the two new officials will have co-ordinate authority and will be answerable to the President alone, or whether one, and, if so, which, will be subordinate to the other; what will be their relations respectively to the present chief inspector of elementary schools in Wales and to the Welsh Central Board; and whether it will be part of the duty of the new Department to issue a separate Education Code for Wales.

MR. MCKENNA: The Welsh Depart ment will be located at Whitehall. Both

Mr. Edwards and Mr. Davies will have their headquarters in London, but the former will spend a considerable portion of each month in Wales. Each of the two new officials will be responsible directly to the President of the Board. Their duties will be distinct, and, though I am not prepared, least of all at so early a stage as the present, to lay down hard and fast rules as to the respective duties of a secretary and a chief inspector, the distinction will be mainly that between the administrative and the more strictly educational aspects of the Board's work. The present divisional inspector of elementary schools in Wales retires in a few months and his post will then lapse. The relations of the new Department to the Central Welsh Board will be those of! the Board of Education to that Board.

Whether or how soon a separate Code of Regulations for Elementary Schools in Wales will be considered advisable I am not yet in a position to determine, and I shall naturally wait until I have been able to consult my new advisers.

Agricultural Teaching in Elementary
Schools.

MR. C. B. HARMSWORTH (Worcestershire, Droitwich): I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether, having regard to the general complaints as to the unsuitability to agricultural needs of the education given in the rural elementary schools in Great Britain, as evidenced in the Report on the decline in the agricultural population of Great Britain, 1881-6, he will take steps to effect the desired alterations in

MR. MCKENNA: So far as public elementary schools are concerned, the Code provides very fully for suitable courses, suitable teaching staff, and suitable equipment in the way of school gardens, materials for rural nature-study, etc. That these provisions are not yet taken advantage of as widely as is desirable is due to the inherent difficulty of finding or training sufficient teachers suitably qualified for these matters and willing to serve in small rural schools. With a view to mitigating this difficulty the Board have also introduced into their

regulations a special optional course in rural science for students in training colleges.

Medical Inspection of School Children. MR. WEDGWOOD (Newcastle-underLyme): I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education, in view of the fact that medical officers of health are unanimously of opinion that if the medical inspection of school children is to be effective, particularly in preventing skin diseases, and so enabling middle-class parents to send their children to the provided schools, that power should be given to the local authorities to pass bylaws compelling the attendance of parents at these examinations, whether he will, in the proposed Bill, provide for such power being given.

THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF TRADE of Germany, Russia, Roumania, and (Mr. KEARLEY, Devonport): The Home Office inform me that an investigation of the causes of this accident will be made by one of His Majesty's Inspectors of Explosives, who will also attend the inquiry to be held by the Procurator Fiscal.

MR. CATHCART WASON: What is dent of the Board of Agriculture, whether, meant by "bodily consumption"?