MR. JOHN BURNS: No Sir, but I am making inquiries and will communi

THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL Gentleman state the percentage of sugar GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. JOHN in this beet? BURNS, Battersea): Perhaps I may be allowed to answer together these two Questions. I am informed that the Central (Unemployed) Body have not received any official complaint on the subjects cate the result to the hon. Member. referred to in these Questions, nor have the Local Government Board. Some hon. Members however, have drawn my attention to complaints of the kind which have been made to them, and I have also seen complaints in the newspapers relative to this matter. It is one which I think deserves the serious consideration of the Central Body.

MR. EVERETT (Suffolk, Woodbridge) Is the produce of this Colony sold in the neighbourhood or elsewhere?

MR. JOHN BURNS: Until recently it was sold in the neighbourhood but now it is sent elsewhere.

MR. FELL: I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if the experiment of growing beet for sugar at the Hollesley Bay colony was success

and if he will consider the question ful; of setting the unemployed to grow beet for sugar making on a commercial scale, as this will not compete with or damage any other English industry, and will employ a large number of hands; and whether he can see his way out of the grant for the unemployed to establish a factory for

the manufacture of sugar, which will give further employment.

MR. JOHN BURNS: The only information I have on this subject is to the effect that the production of beet for sugar at the Farm Colony during the past year was 11 tons 2 cwt. per acre, with a percentage of sugar of 17.07. It rests with the Local Bodies under the Unemployed Workmen Act to propose schemes for temporary employment of the unemployed, but I may say that I should not regard with favour a proposal that a factory of the kind suggested should be

established out of the Grant.

MR AUSTEN TAYLOR (Liverpool, East Toxteth): Can the right hon.

Westminster County Council Election.

SIR ROBERT HOBART (Hampshire, New Forest); I beg to ask the Presi dent of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to the action of the town clerk of Westminster, who, as deputy returning officer for the Westminster division, on 2nd March, on the occasion of the London County Council election, prevented the personation agents of some of the candidates from being present to detect plural voting and otherwise performing their duties that the Act authorises; and further, whether, in view of the action. of the said town clerk, he will secure the appointment as returning officer in this division at future elections of some other person who will carry out the Act without bias.

I find

has been called to this matter.
MR. JOHN BURNS: My attention
that the town clerk is instituting proceed-
ings for libel in connection with allega-
tions to the effect stated in the Question,
and that in these circumstances he thinks
it better not to make any statement on
the subject at the present time. The
appointment of deputy returning officer
rests with the returning officer. The
Clerk of the County Council acted as
returning officer at the recent election,
and he has expressed to me his personal
regret that difficulties of the kind in-
dicated in the Question should have

arisen.

Roydon Sewage Disposal Works.

MR. NIELD: I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he has received the Report of the Board's inspector, Mr. H. R. Bicknell, of a local inquiry held by him at Roydon on the 12th February last with regard to proposed sewage disposal works at Roydon; and whether the Board, in the interests of public health, are prepared

to sanction a scheme which authorises and that it is not proposed to make the discharge into the river Stort, the payments for a similar purpose elsewhere. water of which is the partial source of the supply of drinking water for London, of the unpurified effluent of such proposed works in excess of six times the dryweather flow of the sewage of such district.

MR. JOHN BURNS: I have received the Report referred to. The inquiry related primarily to a proposal to acquire land compulsorily for the disposal of the sewage of Roydon. Some negotiations are, however, going on as to the acquisition of another site by agreement, and I am not at present in a position to come to a decision in regard to the scheme.

Hartley Wintney Schools.

SIR A. SPICER (Hackney, Central): I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if he will State the number of outbreaks of infectious disease which have occurred at the Hartley Wintney district schools during the last six years, with the dates of such outbreaks and the number of children affected in each instance.

MR. JOHN BURNS: There have been 186 cases of scarlet fever, diphtheria, pseudo-diphtheria and measles in the schools during the last six years. None of the cases were fatal. I will send my hon. friend a statement as to the dates of the outbreaks and the number of children affected in each instance.

MR. JOHN BURNS: Yes, Sir.

Paupers' Diet.

MR. JOWETT (Bradford, W.): I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he has read the observations contained in the Report of Mr. P. A. Bagenal, one of the Board's inspectors, on the scale and standard of food in the workhouses, which he thinks is too high, in the course of which he stated, on the authority of some alleged scientific discoveries, that the body adapts itself rapidly to any change of diet, and advises that careful attention to that fact should be given when paupers are being fed at the public expense; whether it is the intention of the Board to act on the scientific discoveries mentioned by Mr. Bagenal and experiment upon paupers in the matter of food; and, having regard to Mr. Bagenal's further observation to the effect that cheap food in the shape of stale cheese, bread bits, bacon and liver bits, and bones from the butchers' shops are available for human food in all large towns, will he say whether these inquiries were made with his sanction.

MR. JOHN BURNS: I have seen the observations in Mr. Bagenal's Report. The Local Government Board have no intention to experiment upon paupers in the matter of food. No sanction on the part of the Board was given to his making the inquiries referred to in the MR. THORNE (West Ham, S.): I beg necessary. He acted in the matter in Question, nor was any such sanction

Unemployed Women in West Ham.

the exercise of his own discretion.

MR. JOWETT: Do the Board approve the recommendations made in this Report?

MR. JOHN BURNS: I have read

to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his Board still adheres to the terms of the letter addressed to the West Ham Distress Committee on the 30th November 1906, in which it is stated that the President did not see his way to make a payment out of the Parliamentary grant for the assistance of unemployed women in West Ham, that the circumstances under which a grant for this purpose was made to the Central Unemployed Body for London were of an exceptional character, to ask the Postmaster-General if he can

the Report. It hardly bears the interpretation the hon. Member puts upon it.

New Zealand Mails.

*MR. FELL (Great Yarmouth): I beg

state the reason for the suspension of the mail route to New Zealand via San Francisco or via Vancouver; what was the time occupied on each route respectively; what is the time by the present route via the Suez Canal; and whether the present arrangements are only temporary or, if not, how long they are likely to continue.

THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON, Tower Hamlets, Poplar) The use of the two routes mentioned in the Question has not at present been suspended so far as the British Post Office is concerned. Correspondence for New Zealand is still sent by both these routes, but in the case of Vancouver only if specially superscribed to that effect. The transmission of unsuperscribed correspondence by the Vancouver route was abandoned in 1899, when the packets ceased to call at Wellington and the route became less advantageous than other routes. The period of transit of the mail from London to Auckland via San Francisco may be put at thirty days, via Suez it is about thirty-nine days, and by way of Vancouver the time occupied is about seven weeks. I am not able to say how long the present arrangements will continue in force.

1

Harrington Postman's Pension. *MR. BURNYEAT (Whitehaven): I beg to ask the Postmaster-General if he is aware that William Bryan, late town postman at Harrington, has served in such capacity for a period of twenty-nine years and nine months, but that he is now in receipt of a pension calculated on a basis of service of eighteen years only; if he will state specifically the particular regulation of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury which precludes them from granting Bryan a pension upon the basis of his total period of service; and whether the case of Bryan is unique, or do many employees of the Post Office labour under similar disabilities.

the delivery of correspondence at Harrington. Under the Treasury regulations no service which has not been paid for directly out of moneys provided by Parliament is pensionable. There are other officers in a position similar to that of Bryan; but the number is not great.

MR. FULLERTON: Will the right Gentleman consider the possibility of making a compassionate allowance from the Rowland Hill fund?

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: I have no

control over that fund, but if the facts are laid before me, I will see what can be done.

*MR. BURNYEAT: How many Post Office employees labour under a similar disability?

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: I cannot say, but it is a very large number.

Dismissals for Post Office Employment.

MR. BOWLES (Lambeth, Norwood): I beg to ask the Postmaster-General, whether there is any regulation of the Postal Service under which a postal servant may be dismissed on the sole ground that he resides upon licensed premises; and, if so, can he state the grounds upon which this regulation is held to be necessary.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: The hon. Member probably has in mind a recent case at Stockport, in which the Postmaster, acting under a misapprehension, terminated the services of a telegraph messenger because his home was on licensed premises. The Postmaster has been properly instructed and the messenger will be re-employed. I regret that the misunderstanding should have occurred.

Illegal Practices at the County Council
Election.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: During a SIR ROBERT HOBART: I beg to ask period of eleven years, before his appointment to an established situation, Mr. Attorney-General whether his attenBryan was employed by the local post- tion has been drawn to or has he received master and paid by him out of an any complaints of personation, plural allowance he received for providing for voting, and other illegal practices at the

recent London County Council election; and whether he will direct inquiries, and if necessary, proceedings to be taken against the offenders in such cases to bring them to justice.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL (Sir JOHN WALTON, Leeds, S.): I do not think it is any part of my duty to make inquiries into this subject. If any reliable information should come before my hon. friend of the illegal practices to which he refers he should communicate with the Public Prosecutor, whose duty it would be to take such proceedings as he deems advisable for bringing the offenders to justice.

Farsley District Councillor's Grievances.

MR. JOWETT: I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General if he is aware that Mr. J. Walker of Farsley was asked to withdraw from his candidature for the district council by his employer, with an intimation that his further employment might depend on his withdrawal; and, if so, whether he proposes to take any action under The Municipal Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act, 1884, section 11, or any other section of the Act in the

case.

SIR JOHN WALTON: I am not aware of the incident to which the hon. Member refers. If he alleges a breach of the law, information should be furnished to the Director of Public Prosecutions who will take such steps as he thinks necessary to enforce the provisions of the Act.

County Council Election Literature. MR. CHIOZZA MONEY (Paddington, N.): I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General | whether his attention has been directed to | the fact that at the recent London County Council election in constituencies in each of which only a few hundred pounds could be legally expended on advertising, postages, hire of committee rooms, etc., tens of thousands of pounds were used by the Moderate Party on coloured posters, open-air lecturers and canvassers, 250 gramophones with attendants, leaflets, etc.; and whether he can see his way forthwith to introduce legislation to put an immediate end to this evasion of the Corrupt Practices Act.

THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. RUNCIMAN, Dewsbury; for Mr. ASQUITH): I assume that my hon. friend refers to the space known as the Custom House Quay. The suggestion was carefully considered by my right hon. friend last summer at the instance of the City Corporation and other bodies; but as the proposed use of the Quay for fish market purposes would interfere with the work of the Custom House and also detract from the amenities of the area as an open space, he did not see his way to comply | with the request.