asked the Secretary of State for War what are the initial salaries and rates of annual increment of the chemists employed by the War Office at the Research Department of the Royal Arsenal and the Royal Gunpowder Factory respectively; and what is the character of the work in which these two classes of chemists are engaged, and in which of the two is the attendant risk the greater?

No establishment has been fixed for the Research Department chemists, and none are entitled to pension except the superintending chemist, to whom his pension is personal only. They are paid according to qualifications and the duties performed by them. The minimum rate at present paid is £93 per annum, and the maximum £525. Increments are given according to merit, and have varied between £5 and £25. The Ordnance Factories Chemists are paid on the following scales: Class 2, £260 annually, with an annual increment of £10 to £350; class 3, £110 annually, with £10 annual increment to £250; and in the case of class 2 they are entitled to pension. The chemists at both places are engaged in investigating the properties and manufacture of explosives, and it cannot be said that the risk is greater in one than in the other.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether, in official documents hereafter to be issued by the Local Government Board, he will cause the word necessitous to be used to denote those persons whom it is the duty of the guardians of the poor to relieve under the provisions of 43 Eliz., c. 2, and 4 and 5 Will. 4, c. 76, in accordance with the suggestion of the majority of the Royal Commission on Poor Law, made at page 597 of their Report, instead of the word destitute?

I have under consideration the various recommendations of the Royal Commission, and amongst them the one to which my hon. Friend refers.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he can give the number of hours worked and the wages paid to the mail-cart drivers in the following towns:—Dublin, Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast, Sheffield, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Exeter, Plymouth, Bournemouth, Peterborough, Leeds, Bristol, and Birmingham?

The wages and hours of work that prevailed when the last inquiries were made, and those which were instituted as the result of those inquiries, are as follows:—

Town.	Date of enquiry.	At time of enquiry.		After enquiry.
		Weekly hours.	Weekly wages.	Weekly hours.	Weekly wages.
Dublin	June, 1906	83 to 35	18/-	About 72	19/- first 6 mos.
					20/- afterwards.
Liverpool	January, 1909	50 to 105 (at 3¾d. an hour.)	15/8 to 32/10	72 hours or less (work in excess of 72 hours—4½d. an hour.)	24/6 single horse
					27/6 pair horse.
Manchester	September, 1906	About 77	18/- to 22/-	About 72	20/- to 24/-.
Belfast	October, 1907	About 65	20/-	About 60	20/- first 6 mos.
					21/6 afterwards.
Sheffield	April, 1906	About 80	20/- to 22/6	About 72	23/-.
Cardiff	August, 1906	About 87	18/-	60 to 72	22/-.
Portsmouth	July, 1908	71 to 80	18/-	About 72	21/-.
Exeter	November, 1907.	63 and 65	16/- single horse	63 and 65	19/- single horse.
			18/- pair horse.		21/- pair horse.
Plymouth	July, 1908	About 69	About 18/-	About 69	20/-.
Bournemouth	September, 1908	About 63	18/- to 21/-	About 63	21/- first year.
					22/- afterwards.
Bristol	December, 1907	58½	21/-	58½	21/-.

In all these cases the drivers are provided with uniforms, the value of which is regarded as equal to about 1s. a week. The conditions at Leeds and Peterborough are under further inquiry. As regards Birmingham I have received no representations that the Fair Wages Clause is being infringed. It should be noted that the weekly hours given are not the hours of actual work but the hours of attendance.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been drawn to the refusal of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Com-

The issue of season tickets is an optional matter on the part of railway companies, but I have communicated with the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company on the subject referred to in the question, and am sending my hon. Friend a copy of their reply from which he will see that third-class monthly tickets are issued from Tulse Hill to London Bridge.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether any authentic records exist of famines in India and the resulting loss of life in periods prior to British rule; and whether there are any records showing that systematic efforts were made to mitigate these visitations?

There is a certain amount of information on record about famines and famine mortality in pre-British India, but it is of a general and not of a statistical character. In the conditions then prevailing systematised relief, as now administered in India, was not practicable.