asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can state to what extent it has been ascertained that claims for repayment of Income Tax were fraudulently made during the last two years by persons using the names of those who were entitled to a return; whether there is easy access at Somerset House to records of previous claims for over-payments which would facilitate a fraud of this nature; what is the ordinary practice of the Inland Revenue Department with regard to the return of taxes where claims made in previous years or other circumstances would indicate that taxes have been over-paid; and is the taxpayer informed of the overpayment or are the over-paid taxes always retained without notice unless a claim is made for their return?

I am informed that fraudulent claims for repayment, involving about £400, were made by one individual during the past two years, but not, by the method suggested. As regards the second part of the question, the public have no access to records of previous claims for repayment. It cannot be inferred from repayment having been made in the previous year that the taxpayer is necessarily again entitled to repayment. The circumstances have often completely changed in the interval, and of this change the Department has no knowledge. It rests with the taxpayer to prefer a fresh claim on the form supplied to hint when the previous repayment was made.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he can state what was the produce for each ld. of Income Tax during the years 1909–10 and 1910–11, and the estimated produce for the year 1911–12, allowance being made for the transfer to 1910–11 of the normal arrears belonging to that year collected in the present financial year?

The information for which the hon. Member asks is not at present available.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he will state the number of persons under police protection in Ireland according to the latest official Returns, dis- tinguishing those under constant protection and those protected by patrol?

On 30th April fifty-one persons were under constant police protection, and 250 persons were at that date under protection by patrol.

asked what steps have recently been taken by the Macroom District Council to get contractors for the erection of cottages for Patrick Cronin, Jeremiah Cronin, and Patrick Buckley, of Carrigagulla, Ballinagree; whether the fact that these cottages are not erected is due to the feeling of some of the district councillors to the political opinions of the labourers in question; and what steps, if any, will be taken by the Local Government Board to expedite the erection of cottages which have been sanctioned for two years for men who live in dwellings which have been medically condemned as unfit for human habitation?

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to his question on this subject on the 12th May. The Local Government Board have no information as to the political opinions of the labourers concerned, or as to the feelings of some of the district councillors towards them, but it is quite clear that the district council are not unmindful of the needs of the labouring class in the matter of house accommodation, when it is considered that they have already erected no less than 600 labourers' cottages, and are proceeding as rapidly as they can with 154 more.

asked the President of the Local Government Board if he will state the names of the twenty-five boards of guardians who have declined to act upon the suggestion of the Local Government Board to award gratuities to their vaccination officers to meet the loss of income sustained by these officers in consequence of the Vaccination Act and Order, 1907, such gratuities to be based on the average income of these officers for the years 1903–7, and that where the deficiency was likely to be permanent the officers' fees should be increased, and the amount of the loss that each of these officers had sustained when they informed the Local Government Board that their boards of guardians had not taken any steps to make up the deficiency in their income in consequence of the Vaccination Act and Order, 19077?

The figure 25 which I gave in my answer to the hon. Member on 14th March referred to vaccination officers and not to boards of guardians. The names of the boards of guardians with whom I have communicated are as follows:—Blackbum, Bristol, Burton-on-Trent, Croydon, Dudley, Farnham, Gainsborough, Glanford Brigg, Grantham, Hailsham, Hammersmith, Kidderminster, Pontypridd, Reigate, Taunton, Tewkesbury, Witney, and York. The annual loss, so far as can be ascertained, which the vaccination officers experienced varied considerably. I doubt if it is advisable to publish the loss estimated to have been sustained by each particular officer, but I may state that in eight cases it did not exceed £10 in the year 1909. In three cases it exceeded £50.

asked the Postmaster-General (1) whether he would arrange that when a Post Office holiday clashes with an important local fair or market, as occurred in Stranraer at the New Year, causing inconvenience to the general public, some provision should be made for the transaction of postal order business at any rate, and, if possible, for telegraph business, during certain hours; (2) whether he had received complaints from the Scottish Estate Factors Society, as to the inconvenience caused to telegraphic business by the new system of weekly half-holidays in country districts; whether anything would be done to obviate this inconvenience; whether he would consider the possibility of substituting a periodical holiday of greater length, with the employment of a temporary substitute; and (3) whether, if he proposes to continue the system of weekly half-holidays in country post offices, he would modify the arrangement by which porterage is charged when deliveries of telegrams are made from a neighbouring office, and deliver them free of charge?

The introduction of a weekly half-holiday at country sub-post offices was one of the recommendations of the Select Committee on Post Office Servants appointed in 1906, and the arrangement is now fairly general. Every effort is made to minimise local inconvenience by the selection of the least busy afternoon—where possible that of the local early-closing day, if one exists—and, at telegraph offices, by allowing the half-holiday only when the telegraph traffic is small, and when there is another telegraph office open within a reasonable distance from which the delivery of telegrams can be maintained. I am afraid I cannot undertake to substitute a periodical holiday of greater length for the weekly half-holidays recommended by the Select Committee; nor could I rightly incur the expense of providing temporary substitutes for the sub-postmasters, nor as at present advised do I see my way to forego the payment of porterage charges from neighbouring offices when the normal delivery office is closed. I received protests against the half-holidays from the Scottish Factors' Society, and answered them on the 23rd March and the 4th ultimo, in the same way as I am now answering the Noble Lord. I cannot find that any representation has been made to me that a post office holiday clashed with an important fair or market at Stranraer at the New Year. New Year's Day is a Bank Holiday in Scotland, and the postal and telegraph arrangements for that day are shown at page 148 of the Post Office Guide.

asked the Postmaster-General if his attention has been called to the fact that a large proportion of the suburban postal sorting work, in the case of the Glasgow district offices, is being performed by officers of the postmen's class, including treatment of registered letter correspondence, foreign, colonial, and inland circulation, surcharging, bag and basket opening, and direct working with up-limited and up-special mails; and, seeing that this practice is a direct contravention of Rule 230 of the Head Postmasters Book of Rules and of the assurances given by the late Postmaster-General that there was no intention of any wholesale or substantial transfer of work from sorting clerks to postmen, whether he will consider the advisability of making other arrangements for this postal work?

My attention has been drawn to the matter to which the hon. Member refers, and I have recently given careful consideration to a memorial on the subject. Postmen in the District Offices in Glasgow perform the same class of work as has for years past been allotted to postmen in District Offices in other towns, that is, they divide the correspondence into a few large divisions, a process called "primary sorting." The only feature special to Glasgow is that some of the correspondence goes direct to the Station instead of to the Head Office. The correspondence sent to the Station, like that sent to the Head Office, is subsequently dealt with by sorting clerks and telegraphists. The above arrangements and the other duties referred to by the hon. Member were authorised by my predecessor, and they are now the subject of enquiry by a committee which I have recently appointed under the chairmanship of the Assistant Postmaster-General.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that up to August, 1910, the mails arrived in the village of Knockaderry, in the county of Limerick, every Sunday morning at eight o'clock and left at 11.40 a.m., and that since then they have not arrived until 9.30 a.m. and leave at 10.35 a.m.; if he can say what is the reason for the change; and, as it causes inconvenience to the public in the district, will he take steps to see that the times for arrival and departure of the mails will be as formerly?

The circumstances are as stated by the hon. Member, except that the mails formerly arrived at Knockaderry on Sundays at 8.30 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. in alternate weeks. The change was made in order to reduce the Sunday attendance of the staff, in accordance with the general policy of restricting Sunday labour in the Post Office as far as possible. The interval of an hour for reply at present afforded is that usually given; and I see no reason for making an exception in the case of Knockaderry.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture if he has received a petition from the gardeners employed at the Royal Gardens, Kew, asking for a rearrangement of sick pay and also of the pay for Sunday labour; if so, whether the petition has been considered; and what reply, if any, has been given to it?

Yes, Sir, and it is still under consideration.