asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he can furnish a statement of the number of deeds, etc., registered, the number of searches made, the amount of fees received, and the office expenses incurred in respect of the Middlesex Registry of Deeds in each year since 1890?

The information desired as to the number of registrations and searches will be found for the years 1895 to 1907 inclusive in House of Commons Paper No. 154 of 1908, and previous similar Returns regarding the Land Registry. I will furnish the hon. Member with a statement of the amount of fees received, and with an estimate of the expenses incurred by the Middlesex Registry for the year 1907, if he so desires. It would cause a disproportionate amount of trouble to extract a separate statement of the expenses for each year since 1890, as the expenses of the Middlesex Registry have been included in those of the Land Registry as a whole since its amalgamation with the latter in 1892.

asked the Postmaster-General whether, seeing that the negotiations for an arrangement to provide for the uninterrupted continuance of telephone construction work have been in progress with the National Telephone Company since October last, and that the special arrangement made by the company to put in hand works earlier than would otherwise have been the case so is to avoid dismissals of its construction staff during the winter months, and referred to by him in the House on 12th November last, will shortly lapse, he can state if there is any prospect of the negotiations between his Department and the company coming to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion; or whether he can state the points of difference which have prevented the negotiations being completed before this?

There is now, I believe, no substantial difference between the National Telephone Company and the Post Office with regard to the terms for the continuance of construction works which do not involve the replacement of existing plant of the company not worn out; and I hope it may shortly be possible to conclude an arrangement with the company for the continuance of such works. An arrangement for the continuance of the more numerous works which involve replacement of existing plant presents greater difficulties; but I do not think it would be expedient to state the points of difference.

asked the First Commissioner of Works whether and when he proposes to renew permission for games to be played on the north-west portion of Primrose Hill?

It is proposed to open the ground referred to during the summer when the grass has grown—the date will probably be about July 1st.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he will take the necessary steps to extend the Trawling in Prohibited Areas (Prevention) Bill to Ireland in view of the fact that, if it is not extended to Ireland, the same difficulties will arise on the Irish coasts, immediately on the passing of the Bill, which it is designed to prevent on the coasts of Scotland?

The conditions which this Bill is intended to remedy apply at present only in a very small way to Ireland, as few of the foreigners who fish in extra-territorial waters around the Irish coast do so with the intention of landing their fish in the United Kingdom. The matter is not, therefore, one of urgency so far as this country is concerned, but the Department would not object to the application of the Bill to Ireland, with suitable Amendments.

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware of the intention of the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District to make an application for the issue of a warrant commanding or requiring the overseers of Croydon to levy for the purposes of the police, under the Metropolitan Police Acts, an additional rate of ½ d. in the £ on the Poor Rate for the purpose of augmenting the pensions fund of the metropolitan police; whether the sum so required is in consequence of some miscalculation on the part of the police authorities in connection with their pensions fund; whether he is prepared to advise His Majesty's Government to make good such deficiency in the pensions fund out of the Imperial Exchequer; if not, whether, in the interests of the present body of ratepayers in Croydon, he will arrange that such deficiency shall be made good by being spread over such a period of years as will not involve the levy of an extra ½d. rate in any one year; and whether he is aware that the cost of maintenance of police in the county borough of Croydon is much in excess of that in county boroughs who control the police?

The Receiver has made the application mentioned. There has been no miscalculation; the growth of the annual deficiency in the income of the police pension fund was foreseen when the scale and conditions of police pensions were revised by Parliament in 1890; and provision was made in the Police Act of that year for raising the sum required to meet the annual deficiency by an addition to the police rate (Police Act, 1890, sec. 19 (4). I cannot advise that a further grant should be made from the Exchequer. It would not be practicable to spread the proposed increase in the rate over a term of years; the deficiency is annual, and is constantly growing. I do not find that the cost of the Metropolitan police is greatly in excess of the cost of police in county boroughs. In the year 1907 the cost per constable employed on ordinary police duty in county boroughs varied from £85 to £113, and in some of the more important county boroughs it was much the same as the cost per constable (£105) in the Metropolitan police district, namely:—