asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the salt department is an Imperial and not a provincial one, the members of provincial services being liable to transfer only within the limits of the province to which they belong, while members of the salt department are liable to transfer over the whole of Northern India; and whether the Secretary of State will sanction a sufficient travelling allowance to enable them to move without serious loss?

The liability to be transferred from one post to another within the provinces to which the operations of the Northern India Salt Department extend is an ordinary and well-understood condition of service in the Department. An officer so transferred is entitled to travelling allowance calculated in accordance with the regulations. The Secretary of State is not disposed to intervene in the matter, which is within the discretion of the Government of India.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the allowance for house rent to members of the salt department is only paid while the officer is actually living in his house, and is cut proportionately if he is absent only one day, and that an officer is absent under canvas for at least eight months of the year, but receives no house allowance during that period even if as a married man he has to maintain a house all the year round; and whether, seeing that the death-rate in the salt department is abnormally high, he will consider whether the consequent saving to Government in pensions might be utilised to improve the rates of pay of the junior grades in the Service?

The house rent allowance granted to superintendents and assistant superintendents of the internal branch of the Northern India Salt Department is subject to a deduction of R.1 per day for every day for which they draw travelling allowance. The Secretary of State is unable to entertain the suggestion made in the latter part of the question. He is not aware that the death rate in the Salt Department is abnormally high.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will state what the average weekly consumption of motor spirit in this country is; and how much of this is supplied from home resources and would be available for use in this country should outside supplies be cut off?

The quantity of motor spirit delivered for home consumption during the first five months of the current year (including both duty-paid and duty-free spirit) represented an average weekly consumption of 1,089,000 gallons, of which 1,060,000 gallons consisted of imported motor spirit and 29,000 gallons of homemade spirit. The bulk of the latter is made in Scotland from native oil shale, but a small though not exactly ascertained proportion is distilled from imported petroleum.

asked the President of the Board of Education whether having regard to the fact that the Government grants now paid to schools for the blind and deaf amount to about 13 per cent. only of the total cost per child in the case of residential schools and about 25 per cent. of that in day schools, and in view of his statement made in the House on 22nd April of last year that he hoped to be able to give further assistance to such schools, he is now able to make any definite pronouncement on the matter?

I must refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on Thursday, 29th June, to the hon. Member for West Staffordshire.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the amount of Irish Land Purchase Loans (exclusive of the Land Purchase Aid Fund) raised from the date when the Purchase Act of 1903 came into operation to the date when the Irish Land Act of 1909 came into operation; what is the amount of Purchase Loans (exclusive of the Land Purchase Aid Fund) floated by the Government since the latter date; and what was the rate of discount on each loan?

submitted the following statement showing the amount of Irish Land Purchase Loans (exclusive of the Land Purchase Aid Fund) raised:—I. From the date when the Purchase Act of 1903 came into operation to the date when the Irish Land Act, 1909, came into operation.II. Since the latter date.And the rate of discount on each loan.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the official statement that the assessment

The reply to my hon. Friend's question is that under the Finance (1909–10) Act, 1910, all assessments are made subject to the provisions of Section 72 (7), which authorises the making of additional or amended assessments, where necessary, within three years after the expiration of the year of assessment.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will explain whether the £130,000,000 stated to be the sum assessed to Super-tax in 1909–10 is thetotal aggregate income of the Super-tax payers, or that aggregate less the £3,000 per taypayer not taxed under the Super-tax provisions?

The figure represents the total aggregate income before the deduction of the £3,000 abatements.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury when the Papal Registers from the Vatican Archives, passed for print last year, will be published?

The whole of the text is in type and has been for some time. The greater part of the index is also now in type. The editor, who is not a salaried official, is engaged in completing the index at Rome in the Vatican library, which is only open at certain seasons of the year. I regret that it is not possible to fix a date for the issue of the work.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether it was the intention of His Majesty's Government to take any action in the matter of a petition to the Colonial Secretary from the self-governing dominions which was presented last November, and which prayed that Great Britain might cease to offer a premium for violation of the bird laws of her overseas possessions by furnishing a market for plumage illicitly exported.

The question whether any and, if so, what action should be taken for the restriction of the trade in plumage is under consideration.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in view of the damage caused to settlers in the East African Protectorate, the Government are prepared to remove or modify the restrictions now imposed upon the shooting of lions and other carnivora in the Government game reserve?

There is a considerable difference of opinion as to the damage caused to settlers in the East Africa Protectorate by big game. I am in communication with the Governor on the subject, and am not at present in a position to say whether it is necessary to remove or modify the restrictions to which my hon. Friend refers. The maintenance of the balance of nature is a difficult problem in East Africa as elsewhere.

asked the Prime Minister whether he has yet obtained the official Report on the voting on the two referenda taken in April last in the Commonwealth of Australia, and of the cost of such referenda; and, if so, whether he will state the number of votes given on the questions submitted to the electorate by such referenda, and the cost of the same?

I understand that the official report on these referenda has not yet been received.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has now received a reply to his despatch of 15th March asking for information as to the working of the referenda recently taken in the Commonwealth; and, should the answer be in the affirmative, whether he will make such reply immediately available?

No reply has yet been received.

asked the Prime Minister whether, with a view to the unification of the law throughout the empire, he will advise the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire and report what parts of the law are fit to be codified and how the codification of such parts as are fit for the purpose can best be proceeded with?

The question of uniformity of the laws of the Empire engaged the attention of the Imperial Conferences of 1907 and 1911, and my hon. Friend is no doubt familiar with the discussions and resolutions in which stress was laid on the desirability of a larger measure of uniformity. I do not think that any useful purpose would be served by the appointment of a Royal Commission.

asked the Prime Minister what day he proposes to give for the discussion of the Indian Budget?

I am not yet able to name a date.

asked the Postmaster-General why the postal authorities surcharge letters stamped with the new Bavarian jubilee stamps?

The new Bavarian jubilee stamps, to which the hon. Member refers, appear to belong to a series issued for the prepayment of postage on correspondence addressed to places within the German Empire only. Letters, etc., addressed to this country to which such stamps are affixed in prepayment of postage are treated by the Bavarian Post Office as unpaid, and are charged double postage.

asked the Postmaster-General whether, in view of the efforts now in progress at Liscannor, West Clare, to improve the fisheries and to develop trade in the district, he will consider the advisability of establishing a daily mail service?

I have called for a report on the subject, and I will communicate the result of the inquiry to the hon. Member.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that the Estates Commissioners, as far back as the year 1907, noted the name Patrick Tidd, of Newbridge, county Kildare, an evicted tenant, as a person eligible for reinstatement in a holding equivalent to the one from which his father was evicted in 1894, and that this decision was affirmed by letters dated the 29th March, 1909, and the 26th May, 1909, in which a distinct promise was made to provide Tidd with a farm; whether the Commissioners have since decided to take no action in the matter, and will he state what is the cause of the change in the intention of the Commissioners in respect to this matter; and will he urge the Commissioners to fulfil their promise to Tidd?

The Estates Commissioners received in March, 1907, an application for reinstatement as an evicted tenant from Patrick Tidd, and they noted him as a person to be provided with a holding should an opportunity occur, and the hon. Member was so informed by the Commissioners in their letters of the 29th March and 26th May, 1909. Applicant is a mail car driver, and the holding formerly occupied by applicant's father was an uneconomic one of about five acres, subject to a rent of £4 10s. a year. The Commissioners, on further consideration, decided, in the exercise of the discretion vested in them, to take no further action in reference to Tidd's application.

asked why James O'Gorman, of Ballymahon, county Longford, a contractor for supply of bread in. 1910, is not yet paid for balance due, amount £8 17s. 9d.; and why the clerk of Ballymahon union does not ask permission of the Local Government Board (Ireland) to pay this balance?

I am informed that Mr. Gorman processed the Board of Guardians of Ballymahon Union for the balance of his account for the supply of bread. The case was dismissed as the amount, £7 18s. 7d. was paid. Mr. Gorman appealed and the decision was confirmed by the judge at the present assizes at Longford.

asked why the Estates Commissioners are unable to do anything further in the case of Catherine Gahan, evicted from Drumderry, in county Wexford, some fourteen years ago?

The question of making an advance to an evicted tenant to purchase his former or other holding is a matter entirely within the discretion of the Estates Commissioners, who, after enquiry and consideration of the case of Catherine Gahan, decided to take no action in the matter. It is not the practice of the Commissioners to state the reasons which actuate them in the exercise of the discretion vested in them.

asked what is the cause of the delay in the Land Registration of Ireland Central Office in registering the labourers' plot on the lands of Mrs. Somers, of Lymebrick, in the union of Gorey and county of Wexford, application for the registry of which has been made as far back as 27th September, 1910?

Owing to the insufficiency of the staff in the Land Registry Office some delay has been caused in registering this and other similar cases. The question of an increase of the staff is at present before the Treasury.