asked the Secretary to the Treasury when any money from the Development Grant will be available for improving horse breeding in Central Wales?

Questions whether grants should be made for purposes of this kind are primarily for the consideration of the Development Com- mission, which will, I hope, be constituted shortly.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, under the scheme whereby certain assistants on the Ordnance Survey and in other public departments are admitted to the establishment, these assistants are required to accept a reduction in their salaries on being admitted to the benefits of the Superannuation Act; will he say if they are entitled to these benefits from the date of such reduction; and, if not, will he state why their salaries should be reduced prior to the date of their certificates?

The answer to the first question is in the affirmative; the answer to the second is also in the affirmative, provided that the Civil Service certificate is ultimately obtained. The third question consequently does not arise.

asked the total amount of the Grants made from Imperial funds for the purpose of public education in England, Ireland, and Scotland respectively for the year 1909–10; the estimated or actual population of these countries in the middle of the year 1909; and the cost per head of the population for public education for the three countries respectively?The HON. MEMBER also asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he will give for the year 1909–10 for each of the three countries, England, Ireland, and Scotland, respectively (

further asked the cost of public education in Scotland for 1909–10 under the following heads, as defrayed out of Imperial funds: administration, inspection, elementary schools, continuation classes, secondary schools, and training of teachers; and the cost of public education in Ireland for the same period under the following heads, as defrayed out of public funds: administration, inspection, training colleges, model schools, national schools, manual and practical instruction, teachers' residences, school grant, and teachers' pensions fund (grant in aid of)?

In reply to these three questions I can only refer the hon. Member to the answers which I gave on Thursday last to questions by the hon. Members for West Kerry and West Cavan.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that printed Regulations as to the promotion of writers to abstractorships were issued in 1891 by the Civil Service Commissioners, with the sanction of the Treasury, to the various Government Departments in which writers were employed, stating the conditions as to examination, salary, and annual leave as abstractors, and stipulating that retirement would be compulsory on attaining the age of sixty-five; and will he say to what extent, if (any have those Regulations been since modified?

I have not been able to identify the printed regulations of the Civil Service Commissioners referred to.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he received a copy of a set of resolutions recently passed at a public meeting at Athenry; whether a request was made for some members of the Congested Districts Board to visit the district of Athenry and meet a deputation appointed to discuss the advisability of purchasing a quantity of grazing land in the neighbourhood; and what steps the Government propose to take in the matter?

also asked the Chief Secretary if he will explain the cause of the delay in making arrangements for the working of the new Congested Districts Board and the Land Purchase Act, 1909; which of the Departments, namely, the Congested Districts Board or the Estates Commissioners, is going to deal with the lands inspected by the inspectors to the Commissioners under the Act of 1903 in the Loughrea and Athenry districts; and can he state when the decision of the Government will be made known?

I will answer these two questions together. I have received the Resolutions referred to, but there is no question at present before the Congested Districts Board calling for a conference with any local body or association. The Board have given their consent to the Estates Commissioners completing the purchase and resale of practically all the estates in the neighbourhood of Athenry offered to them before the passing of the Irish Land Act, 1909.

asked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that a memorial was forwarded to the Local Government Board early in March from the labourers of Athenry, asking for a small reduction in the rent of their cottages; will he say if the memorial has been considered; and what is the result?

The Local Government Board have received the memorial referred to. The Board are not empowered to reduce the rents fixed by the rural district council, and it appears from the minutes of the council's meeting on 26th February last that a motion, of which due notice had been given, to reduce the rents from 8s. 4d. to 6s. a month could find only two supporters, twenty-two members voting against it. The rents fixed by the council can hardly be deemed excessive for cottages in the town of Athenry.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he can say whether the Estates Commissioners have taken any steps to purchase the un-tenanted lands of Corkamore, Clarina, in the county of Limerick, on the Glissane estate, which are at present the subject matter of an administration suit in the High Court of Justice (Ireland), Chancery Division, Master of the Rolls Record, No. 1903, 564; and, if not, whether, as the land will be sold with the view to distributing the proceeds of sale amongst the next-of-kin of Sarah Glissane, deceased, the Commissioners will purchase them for the evicted tenants and labourers in the vicinity?

The Estates Commissioners have not taken any steps for the purchase of these lands. They are the subject of Chancery proceedings in the Court of the Master of the Rolls, and up to the present no proceedings have been instituted before the Estates Commissioners with a view to their sale under the Land Purchase Acts.

asked the Chief Secretary whether any communications have taken place between the Estates Commissioners and Mr. P. Molony, of Carrigeen, Croom, county Limerick, with a view to the purchase of 700 acres of untenanted land held by the latter at Carrigeen and Banogue for distribution among the deserving classes in those localities?

The Estates Commissioners have not received any such communications.

asked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that on 24th September, 1909, the Carlow pension sub-committee granted Mary Fitzpatrick a pension of 5s. per week; that the pension officer appealed against the pension on the ground that claimant was not the statutory age, and the Local Government Board allowed the appeal; that, at a committee meeting held on 11th March, 1910, the pension officer reported that, on a further search, he found that in the Census Returns of 1851 the claimant was recorded as being then fourteen years old, and that she was therefore over seventy when the committee allowed the pension in the first instance; and whether the claimant will now be paid the amount wrongly withheld from her since 24th September, 1909?

The Local Government Board upheld the appeal of the pension officer, as, at the time they investigated the case, the claimant was unable to furnish proof that she had attained the statutory age. The onus of proof rests upon claimants, and until Mrs. Fitzpatrick established her age satisfactorily no pension could properly be allowed. The proceedings before the pension committee on 11th March have not come before the Board, and and I have, therefore, no information with regard to the matters referred to in the concluding portion of the question.

asked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that, on 11th December, 1908, the Carlow pension subcommittee granted John Carter a pension of 5s. per week, the first payment of which was made on 1st January, 1909; that on 21st November, 1909, a question was raised by the pension officer that Carter was not the statutory age, and that the committee, being satisfied that he was over seventy, continued the pension, which the Local Government Board, on appeal, disallowed; that Carter subsequently furnished the committee with an official certificate showing that he was enrolled as a pupil in Carlow-Grague National School in May, 1846, and that he was therein described as being seven years old last birthday; and whether, having regard to this certificate and the unanimous opinion of the committee that Carter was qualified by age for pension, he will ask the Local Government Board to reconsider their decision?

The Local Government Board allowed the pension officer's question, as Carter's age was recorded in the Census Returns as being one year in 1841, and ten years in 1851; and, in accordance with their practice when a person is recorded as being one year old at the time when the Census of 1841 was taken, the Board decided that Carter would attain the statutory age on the 1st April, 1910. The extract from the school register was only produced after the case had been fully investigated and decided; and no fresh claim was made.

asked the Chief Secretary with reference to the explanation given of the difference in the rents charged for labourers' cottages in the Celbridge (county Dublin) rural district, whether, in stating that the rents were higher in one portion of the district than in another because the wages paid were higher, he took account of the fact that employment was by no means constant in the area in which the higher rents are charged; if not, whether inquiry will be made into this point; and whether, if it be found that on the whole the wages actually earned in that area do not in the course of a year amount to more than elsewhere in the same district, the Local Government Board will make representations to the district council with a view to a revision of the higher rents to which reference has been made?

As I indicated in my answer to the previous question on the same subject asked by the hon. Member on 29th March, the explanation in question was given by the rural district council, who, no doubt, fully considered the circumstances as to the wage earning capacity of the labourers throughout the year in the different electoral divisions. The council are required by the Labourers Act of 1906 to fix the rents so as to secure a reasonable return, having regard to the circumstances of the locality affected, on the expenditure incurred by the council in providing the cottages and plots; and their action in differentiating between the rents for cottages in different localities shows that they have had this provision in mind. The Local Government Board do not propose to interfere with the discretion of the council in this matter.

asked the Chief Secretary if he will state the number of evicted tenants who formerly resided outside county Cork that have been given farms in county Cork by the Estates Commissioners; and what is the number of evicted tenants formerly residing in county Cork that have been provided with farms outside the county?

I would refer the hon. Member to the quarterly Returns with regard to evicted tenants who have been reinstated, which are presented to Parliament in pursuance of Section 3 of the Evicted Tenants (Ireland) Act, 1907. Those Returns give particulars of the holdings from which the tenants were evicted, and of those with which they have been provided.

asked the Chief Secretary if he has obtained any information relating to the arrest at Newmarket, county Cork, of a man named Jeremiah Egan by Constable Culhane; whether he is aware that Constable Culhane was assaulted by Egan in effecting the arrest; what are the reasons why proceedings were never instituted against Egan for the assault and by whose authority Egan was released without being conveyed to the police barrack, although he was taken a portion of the way; and whether, under the circumstances, he will cause inquiry to be made into the matter?

I understand that the arrest in this case was only technical. In order to prevent a collision between opposing parties the constable was obliged to arrest Egan and convey him towards the barracks, but let him go as soon as the object of preventing a breach of the peace was effected. No prosecution was necessary. I am informed that Egan, who is now in America, did not assault the constable.

asked the Secretary for War whether, in view of the fact that hundreds of ex-soldiers cannot find employment in this country he will consider the advisability of granting to Army pensioners a lump sum in lieu of their pensions, to enable them to emigrate and to give them a start to earn a livelihood in another part of the Empire?

The experience of the past has shown that the commutation of small pensions is rarely to the pensioners' advantage, and it is not proposed to extend the present regulations under which the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital may recommend the commutation of any part in excess of 1s. a day when they are satisfied that the applicant is of good health and that the commutation is likely to be of distinct and permanent benefit to him?

asked whether the War Office purchased a portion of foreshore lying between Shoeburyness and Wakering Stairs, in Essex, from a Miss Knapping about five years ago; and, if so, whether such purchase included her fishing rights?

The War Department purchased a portion of foreshore extending from Rampart Street on the West to the Eastern boundary of the parish of North Shoebury on the East from the Misses Knapping in 1906. The purchase included the Misses Knapping's fishing rights.

asked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the recent death in Portsmouth Prison of John Prattle; whether this man's death was due, according to the coroner's verdict, to heart disease; whether he had been twice forcibly fed; and whether he had been medically examined before forcible feeding was authorized?

The Secretary of State's attention had not been previously called to this case. On inquiry he finds that the prisoner was committed on remand on a charge of attempting suicide, his second attempt. He appears to have been of unsound mind and could not be persuaded to take food. Food had, therefore, to be administered by force. His heart was tested first, but artificial feeding was in this case the only alternative to allowing him to commit suicide. According to the medical evidence, death was due to heart disease and not in any way to forcible feeding, which probably prolonged his life. The coroner's jury expressed the opinion that he had received every consideration at the hands of the prison officials.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the Convention of 1st April, 1909, between the Governor of the Transvaal and the Portuguese Province of Mozambique, relating to the employment of natives working in the Transvaal mines, was duly approved and sanctioned by His Majesty's Government before Lord Selborne, the Governor of the Transvaal, signed the Convention?

A full summary of the final text of the Convention was received by telegram, and the Governor was authorised to sign it.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether India and all the self-governing British Colonies signified their adhesion to the Brussels Sugar Convention of 1902 under the provisions contained in the final protocol for that purpose, and to the additional Act of 1907?

No, Sir; neither India nor any of the self-governing Dominions have done so.

further asked whether the Indian Government is precluded from granting a tariff preference on sugar to the United Kingdom or other British Colonies and Possessions under any of the provisions of the Brussels Sugar Convention of 1902 or the additional Act of 1907; and, if so, under which provisions?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the negative.

asked the Prime Minister whether the Education Bills of 1906–7, 1908 (No. 1), and 1908 (No. 2), still form part of the Government's programme of legislation?

I am not prepared to say that the Government will at any future time reintroduce any one of the Bills referred to in the precise form in which it was last before the House of Commons. The Government have not, however, in any sense abandoned the intention to remove at the earliest moment at which it is practicable, the anomalies and the injustice created by the Education Act, 1902. The Bills in question were all introduced with a view to the advancement in a greater or less degree of this policy. In so far, therefore, as the position may be taken to relate to the general policy underlying the Bills, the answer is in the affirmative.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will give figures for the past three years showing the amount of raw cotton imported into Great Britain for transhipment to other countries?

The quantities of imported raw cotton recorded as re-exported from the United Kingdom in each of the years 1907–9 were as follows: 1907, 2,949,572 cwts.; 1908, 2,597,948 cwts.; 1909, 2,398,513 cwts.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will state what Crown salmon fishings on the coast of the Moray Firth the Commissioner of Woods and Forests, Sir Stafford Howard, has consented to let to the Moray Firth Salmon Fishing Company, who propose to remove the salmon nets so that more salmon may be allowed to get up the rivers; and, seeing that this will prejudicially affect the interests of existing lessees and throw a number of persons out of employment, will the proposal be reconsidered, and the practice of advertising the leases of salmon fishings as they fall in continued?

Sir Stafford Howard has agreed to let to the company, from Martinmas next, when they will fall out of lease, the following salmon fishings in the Moray Firth:—Cairnlaw, Meikle Suddy, Flowerburn, Easter and Wester Teaninich, Shandwick, Balintore, Geanies, Seafield, and Rockfield. The company is being formed by the owners of salmon fishings in the district in consequence of the marked decrease of fish on the coast, in the rivers and on the spawning-beds. The object in view is to increase the stock of fish by reducing the netting. This has been done successfully in other districts. It is believed that in the long run the measures proposed will make it possible to employ more hands than could be employed if the present decrease of fish were allowed to go on unchecked.

asked the President of the Local Government Board, whether it is the practice of the Local Government Board to ignore the rates of interest on investments and mortgages held by persons applying for old age pensions, and to advise the pension committees that they have nothing to do with the rate of interest, even when such appears to have been made deliberately low enough to enable the applicants to secure old age pensions?

The answer is in the negative In a circular which the Local Government Board addressed to pension committees in December, 1908, they stated that for the purpose of calculating, under Section 4 (1) (c) of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, the value of the yearly income of a claimant for a pension, the yearly value of money invested or deposited in a bank at interest should be taken at the actual amount of income derived from the investment or accruing on the deposit. I may add that, under Section 4 (3) of the Act, if it appears that a person has directly or indirectly deprived himself of any income in order to qualify for a pension that income is to be reckoned as part of his means.

asked the Lord Advocate whether it is the fact that the Royal Commission appointed to consider the adoption of Registration of Title to Land in Scotland was appointed in May, 1906; whether they have long ago closed their evidence, whether any evidence or preliminary Report has been published; and, if not, whether he can say when the Report may be expected?

The Royal Commission was appointed at the time mentioned by the hon. Member and the taking of evidence was completed last year. No evidence or preliminary Report has been published. I am informed that the Report may be expected this summer.

asked the Lord Advocate whether he is aware that school children attending the Bragar public school, island of Lewis, have recently been required by the headmaster to carry peats to school; and, seeing that this action on the part of the headmaster is in contravention of an order issued by the Scottish Office some years ago, will care be taken to prevent the order being disregarded either at Bragar or other schools in the island?

I am aware of a report by the District Sanitary Officer to the effect that the Barvas School Board have been called upon to carry out certain sanitary improvements in connection with the Bragar public school. I am informed that the School Board have instructed their architect to arrange for the erection of new accommodation.

asked the Lord Advocate if the Secretary for Scotland will state the names of any farms in the island of Lewis the leases of which fall in this year or next?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the particulars given in the reply to his question, dated 6th July, 1908, which included the dates at which the leases of farms in the Lews expire.

asked the Lord Advocate what is the total amount voted for primary and the total for secondary education in Scotland for the year 1910–11?

The total amount to be voted for grants in aid of primary and secondary education together for 1910–11 is £1,918,867. It is not possible to say what portion of this sum will be applied to primary and what portion to secondary education, but a very rough estimate would be:—

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if it is still intended in any coming Budget to place the increased duty on Irish-grown tobacco and Irish-manufactured tobacco?

It would be contrary to precedent for me to make any statement as regards the future intentions of the Government in relation to taxation.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can state for each of the years 1881–2 to 1893–4, both inclusive, the total amount of all the then existing death duties actually received during the

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer can he state for each of the years 1881–2 to 1893–4, both inclusive, the total aggregate amount of incomes subject to Income Tax on which tax was received; abatements allowed; life insurance premiums allowed; income, including abatements and life insurance premiums; increase per cent, over the preceding year; net produce of Income Tax, and average virtual rate of tax per cent.?

presented the following statement for each of the years 1881–2 to 1893–4, both inclusive, showing:—

submitted the following Return, showing for each of the years 1881–2 to 1893–4, both inclusive, the total aggregate amount of incomes subject to Income Tax on which tax was received, abatements allowed, life insurance premiums allowed, income including abatements and life insurance premiums, increase per cent, over the preceding year, net produce of Income Tax, and average virtual rate of tax per cent.required by the Return, the figures in columns 2 to 6 and 8 are necessarily estimates.