66 That, in the case of the Taff Vale Railway Bill, Petition for dispensing with Standing Order 128 in the case of the Petition of National Sailors' and Firemen's Union of Great Britain and Ireland,' against the Bill, the said Standing Order ought to be dispensed with." "That, in the case of the Bristol Corporation Bill, Petition for dispensing with Standing Order 128 in the case of the Petition of National Sailors' and Firemen's Union of Great Britain and Ireland,' against the Bill, the said Standing Order ought to be dispensed with." Resolutions agreed to. SELECTION (PRIVATE LEGISLATION PROCEDURE (SCOTLAND) ACT, 1899) (COMMISSIONERS). Sir WILLIAM BRAMPTON GURDON reported from the Committee of Selection; That, in pursuance of the provisions of The Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1899, they had selected the following Fifteen Members to form the Parliamentary Panel of Members of this House to act as Commissioners: Mr. M'Crae, Sir John Tuke, Mr. Levy, Mr. Weir, Mr. Findlay, Mr. Lamont, Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. John Dewar, Mr. John Deans Hope, Mr. Wilkie, Mr. Bell, Major Anstruther-Gray, Mr. Ernest Gardner, Viscount Dalrymple, and Mr. M'Callum. Report to lie upon the Table. PETITIONS. COAL MINES (EIGHT HOURS) BILL. Petitions in favour; From Bullgill; Broughton Moor; Buckhill; Camerton; Clowne; Gillhead; Seymour ; and, Stanley Common Collieries; to lie upon the Table. SALE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS Two Petitions from Northampton, for prohibition; to lie upon the Table. RETURNS, REPORTS, ETC. SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE (TRIAL OF ELECTION PETITIONS, 1906-7). Return [presented 4th March] to be printed. [No. 65.] CIVIL SERVICES AND REVENUE DEPARTMENTS, 1907-8 (VOTE ON ACCOUNT). Estimate presented,―showing the several Services for which a Vote on Account is required for the year ending 31st March, 1908 [by Command]; Referred to the Committee of Supply, and to be printed. [No. 64.] NAVY (DOCKYARD EXPENSE Annual Accounts presented,-for 19056 of Shipbuilding and Dockyard Transactions, etc., with Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General thereon [by Act]; to lie upon the Table, and to be printed. [No. 66.] NAVY (VICTUALLING YARD MANUFACTURING ACCOUNTS, 1905–6). Annual Accounts presented,-of the Cost of Manufacturing Provisions, Victualling Stores, etc., at the Home Victualling Yards and Malta Yard for 1905– 6, with the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General thereon [by Act]; to lie upon the Table, and to be printed. [No. 67.] CHURCH ESTATES COMMISSION. Copy presented, of Fifty-sixth Report from the Church Estates Commissioners for the year preceding 1st March, 1907 [by Command]; to lie upon the Table. (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) Loans were sanctioned in the spring of 1905, not 1906, for the erection of 114 cottages in this district, and all but six of these cottages were completed before 1st November last. The district council, therefore, are responsible for the fact that the Exchequer contribution is not payable in respect of these six cottages, for the completion of which before 1st November there appears to have been ample time. There is no record of the receipt of any representation such as is mentioned in the Question. MR. MOORE: To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that the rates for the Ballymoney rural district for the year 1907-8. have been raised by 2d. in the pound for labourers cottages owing to the effect of the Labourers Act, 1906, and that, in addition to this, over 300 applications for cottages are now before the rural Council, and will he say what received by the rural council for labourers cottages from the Exchequer grant in the financial year ending prior to the Labourers Act, 1906, and what will be the corresponding amount in the present year. was (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Local Government Board are aware that a statement to the effect mentioned in the first part of the Question was made at the last meeting of the Antrim County Delay in Erection of Labourers Cottages Council. Applications for 259 cottages at Ballymoney. MR. MOORE (Armagh, N.): To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that under the Labourers Act, 1906, cottages in the Ballymoney rural district in respect of which schemes were approved and loans sanctioned in the spring of 1906, but which were not built up to 1st November, will receive no capitation grant under the Act, and, subject to the share of the district in the sum of £392 granted to the whole county, will have to be paid for out of the rates at the old rate of £4 17s. 9d. per cent.; and whether the Government has at any time received any representation against this state of affairs on behalf of the inhabitants of the rural district. have been made to the Ballymoney Rural District Council. The amount received by the council in the financial year ending March, 1906, was £661; the amount for the present year will be £150, approximately. It is to be remembered that this council was able to provide before 1st November last 108 cottages at very little expense to the rates, and a rate of 2d. in the £ cannot be regarded as excessive having regard to the fact that the Acts allow a rate of 1s. and, in exceptional cases, 1s. 3d. As regards the new applications, the local authority have the very considerable advantage afforded by the reduced terms for loans under the new Act, and by the payment by the Government of 36 per cent. of the annual charge on such loans. Restoration of Evicted Tenants in South Wexford. MR. FFRENCH (Wexford, S.): To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that dissatisfaction prevails in South Wexford owing to the fact that the evicted tenants are not being restored to their homes; and whether, as the season for putting in the crops is at hand, anything can be done to hasten their restoration ; can he say if the Estates Commissioners have made any progress with reference to the Boxwell tenants, the Coolroe tenants, and the Sigginshaggard tenants. (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners are anxious to deal (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners will deal with this estate in its proper order of priority. The Commissioners had a preliminary inspection made of 417 acres of untenanted land on the estate, and made a provisional offer for its purchase in October last, but the negotiations have been suspended until the Commissioners shall be in a position to make an offer for the remainder of the property. The Commissioners will have the entire estate inspected in due course, but this cannot be for some time, having regard to the claims of prior cases to be dealt with. Application under the Labourers Acts in the MR. CHARLES CRAIG (Antrim, S.): with the cases of evicted tenants in county To ask the Chief Secretary to the LordWexford as soon as possible. In the case Lieutenant of Ireland if he will state of the Boxwell estate eighteen applicahow many applications under tions for reinstatement have been received Labourers' Acts have been received by and the Commissioners have referred the several rural districts in the county them to an inspector for investigation. of Antrim and were pending on 1st Three applications from the Coolroe February, 1907; and what was the corestate have been lodged. The owner of responding number on 1st February, this estate has offered it for sale to the 1906, before the Exchequer grant of Commissioners, who will have it in- £2,400 per annum was reduced. spected as soon as possible. In the case of the third estate mentioned, two applications have been received and investigated. The Commissioners unstand that the reinstatement of the applicants by the landlord will depend upon his coming to terms of sale with his tenants generally. Delay in Sale of Major Hall's Estate near MR. DUFFY (Galway, S.): To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that agreements to purchase their holdings have been signed and filed with the Estates Commissioners in connection with the estate of Major H. T. Hall, near Athenry, for a considerable length of time past; and will he explain why, after a requisition being served on the Commissioners by the landlord to inspect the grazing lands on the same property, with a view to sale, no steps have been taken since October last to expedite or see the sale through. (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The number of cottages applied for in county Antrim up to 1st February, 1907, was upwards of 1,000. The Local Government Board have no particulars of the number of applications pending at the corresponding period of last year. Increase of Rates in the Aghalee Rural MR. CHARLES CRAIG: To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been called to the fact that the reduction of the Exchequer grant for the purposes of the Labourers Acts to county Antrim from £2,400 to £392, under the Labourers Act of last session, has involved an increase in the rates for the Aghalee rural district in respect of cottages built before the Act; and what steps he proposes to take. (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Local Government Board have no information that the circumstance mentioned has respect of the current financial year are involved an increase in the rates in the not yet completed. district referred to. According to the mover of the estimates of the rates, there will be practically no change in the rates. No action in the matter seems to be necessary. Petition of Portsmouth Postmen re MR. BRAMSDON (Portsmouth): To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that the postmen at Portsmouth submitted a petition on the question of the dining club to the surveyor on the 18th January last, and that, despite an application for a reply, the petition has not been acknowledged; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter. (Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The petition of the 18th January was duly forwarded by the postmaster to the surveyor, but through inadvertence was not acknowledged by the latter. A request for a reply to the petition. was made on the 14th ultimo, and was answered by the postmaster to the effect that he was awaiting a reply from the surveyor. In the meantime the petition had been considered and an answer was given on the 28th of February. Prices of English Barley. ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, MR. KILBRIDE (Kildare, S.): To as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether he can give the quantities and prices of barley sold at the undermentioned markets in the months of October, November, and December last: Bishop's Stortford, Chelmsford, York, Darlington, Norwich, and Cambridge; and whether he can state the quantities and prices of barley sold in the said months in two or three other large barley markets of England and Scotland, and the prices brewers and distillers of pot-still whiskey have been paying for malt during the same period. (Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) The following table gives the prices and quantities of barley sold at the towns mentioned, as returned to the Board under the Corn Returns Act, 1882. The three other towns included in the table are those at which, next to Norwich, the largest quantity of barley was returned as purchased in 1906. to Scotland. We have no information The Corn Returns Act does not apply as to the prices of malt. next, will he state whether the investigations by Foreign Governments will be continued until that date; and will he name the Powers participating in the investigations, and the amount which they have respectively expended in these international inquiries up to the present time. (Answered by Secretary Sir Edward Grey.) Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have expressed their willingness to continue the investigations, and the amount of their contributions to the joint expenses will be found at page 41 of Command Paper 2966 of 1906. But, in addition, each country has spent considerable sums on steamers and laboratories, etc., maintained in connection with the inquiry. |