asked the Secretary to the Treasury the number of applications for sanatorium treatment under the National Insurance Act made to the insurance committee of the Isle of Wight, and the number of cases actually treated?

I am informed that five applications for sanatorium benefit have been received, and that the committee are making arrangements for the treatment of these cases. The Insurance Commissioners are communicating further with the committee with reference to these arrangements.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the Commissioners of National Education have made any alteration in Hide 92 (j) of their Code; if so, what alteration, and, if not, will he urge the Commissioners to expedite their consideration of this rule, seeing that he has made recommendations to the Commissioners in favour of ladies already in the service; and is he aware that teachers are every day suffering hardships under this rule?

The Commissioners of National Education have now ordered that in the case of women teachers in their service on or before the date of its promulgation Rule 92 (j) be not enforced under present circumstances.

asked the Chief Secretary how many of the Royal Irish Constabulary were stationed in Belfast in the months of October, 1910, October, 1911, and October, 1912; and further for a classification as to how many of these were Episcopalians, how many Presbyterians, and how many were Roman Catholics; and will he also say how many district inspectors, how many head constables, how many sergeants, and how many acting sergeants were engaged during the same periods?

The Inspector-General informs me that there were stationed in Belfast, in October, 1910, 1,049 members of the Royal Irish Constabulary; of these 487 were Roman Catholics, 174 Presbyterians, and 388 Episcopalians. There were 7 district inspectors, 28 head constables, 136 sergeants, and 32 acting sergeants. In October, 1911, there were 1,060 members of the Royal Irish Constabulary; of these 508 were Roman Catholics, 164 were Presbyterians, and 388 Episcopalians. There were 7 district inspectors, 28 head constables, 132 sergeants, and 34 acting sergeants. In October, 1912, there were 1,258 members of the Royal Irish Constabulary; of these 637 were Roman Catholics, 171 Presbyterians, and 450 Episcopalians. There were 7 district inspectors, 28 head constables, 127 sergeants, and 63 acting sergeants. In above figures all officers are included except the Commissioner, who is an Episcopalian.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty how many skilled labourers are employed in His Majesty's dockyard, Pembroke Dock, and what is the number of skilled labourers on the intermediate rates of pay who have received an augmentation since the date of the recent increases of pay?

The numbers are 601 and 26 respectively. In addition, 15 men have been raised to the new maximum special rates.

asked the Secretary of State for War whether the Government have recently acquired property in the locality of Bristol with a view to making Bristol a capital aviation centre; and whether Bristol is to be equipped with hydroplanes, aeroplanes, and a dirigible balloon, with a view to undertaking the training of recruits for the Royal Flying Corps?

The reply is in the negative.

asked the President of the Board of Education the number of public elementary schools in England and Wales; the number of pupils on the register; the number in average attendance; the number of school gardens attached to elementary schools; the number of pupils instructed by means of these school gardens; the amount of Grants earned by them; the number of pupils who passed last year in each of the standards IV., V., and VI.; what subjects are compulsory; does the Hoard of Education require the syllabus adopted by the managers of a rural elementary school to be submitted to them before it can be put into force; and in how many elementary schools are observation and nature study lessons given?

During the year ending 31st July, 1911, there were, in England and Wales, 20,846 elementary schools, with 6,030,718 scholars on the register and 5,373,567 in average attenance. The number of schools which had gardens attached was 2,243 in England and Wales, and there were also 15 centres for gardening classes. The number of registered scholars in gardening classes was 41,394, and the amount of Grant earned was £5,807 6s. The regular annual examinations, to which the hon. Member presumably refers in the seventh part of the question, are now no longer held. In connection with the eighth and ninth parts of the question, perhaps I might be allowed to refer the hon. Member to Articles 2, 3, and 4 of the Code of Regulations for Elementary Schools. The Board of Education do not necessarily require any syllabus to be submitted for approval unless a considerable departure from a course of instruction ordinarily followed in a public elementary school is desired. In answer to the last part of the question, I am unable to give any figures, but observation and nature study lessons are now being given in practically every school.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India if he will state what loans have been issued by the India Office in 1906 and subsequent years and at what price; the rates of interest on stock and of discount on India bills; the name or names of the bank or banks through which the issues were made, and of the brokers by whom the underwriting was arranged; and the rates of remuneration to the bank or banks and the brokers and of underwriting commission?

The following statement gives the information for which my hon. Friend asks:—

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India the amount of the purchases of silver in each month of the present year, and the prices paid month by month?

The amounts purchased in each month and the average prices paid (to the nearest sixteenth of a penny) were as follows:—

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether any vaccination officer in England and Wales is paid a fee for recording the date of the statutory declaration of objection to vaccination; and, if so, whether the fee paid is equal in amount to the fee for recording the certificate of successful vaccination?

So far as I am aware, the answer is in the negative.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that in September, 1908, the Local Government Board wrote to the Bristol Board of Guardians requesting them to again consider an application from their vaccination officers for extra remuneration, in consequence of their loss of income owing to the increase of the number of persons claiming exemption under the Vaccination Act, 1907, and that upon the guardians refusing to do so, on 2nd October, 1908, the Local Government Board again wrote requesting the guardians to consider awarding gratuities to the two officers who devoted their whole time; whether he is aware that, after further correspondence in July, 1912, the guardians informed the Local Government Board that they were prepared to pay to the two officers who devoted their whole time a salary suggested by the Local Government Board; whether the Bristol Board of Guardians have informed the Local Government Board that, as they are in no way responsible for the reduction of income sustained by these officers, they decline to admit any liability for compensation; and whether the Local Government Board have informed the vaccination officers concerned that they have given the question of their remuneration careful consideration, and have decided in all the circumstancs of the case, to consent to the proposal of the guardians; if so, what were the circumstances that these officers should not be paid the gratuity suggested by the Local Government Board?

I am fully aware of the circumstances of this case, and, after discussing the matter with the chairman and clerk of the board of guardians, I decided to sanction the proposal that the two officers should receive salaries of £150 and £130 per annum.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that Dr. Fenwick, one of the public vaccinators of the Croydon union, has been granted six months' leave of absence, and that Dr. O'Hagan, the public vaccinator for another ward in the same union, has been appointed as his deputy; whether this duplication of official positions meets with the sanction of the Board, seeing that there are plenty of other duly qualified doctors residing within the union; and whether he is aware that, on more than one occasion, medical inspectors of the board have investigated cases vaccinated by Dr. O'Hagan, in which it was alleged abnormal results had followed?

I am aware of the facts of this case, and have approved of the arrangements made by the guardians. My medical inspectors have investigated two cases in which abnormal results have been alleged to have followed vaccinations by Dr. O'Hagan. In neither ease did they consider that any blame attached to Dr. O'Hagan.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that a certificate of death from small-pox, at Hinckley, in 1910, in which the vaccinal condition of the patient was described as doubtful, was accepted by the Registrar-General, though the entry in the hospital register shows that the man had two vaccination scars of an approximate area of 1⅜ square inches; whether the fourteen deaths from small-pox, out of the nineteen which occurred in 1910, described on the certificates of death as doubtful in regard to vaccination, are so described in the registers of the hospitals in which those patients were treated; and whether he will issue instructions that the condition as to vaccination shall be entered on all certificates of death from small-pox as it appears in the hospital registers?

I have been in communication with the Registrar-General on the subject. I learn that cases in which no information as to vaccinal condition has been given in the certificate of death have hitherto been grouped under the heading "Doubtful." But a modification of this arrangement has already been under consideration, and will be adopted in future.

asked the President of the Board of Trade the value of exports from the United Kingdom, Germany, and the (United States, respectively, in 1900 and 1911, not including the British Dominions, Imperial Possessions, Protectorates, etc., oversea; and what were the exports from Germany to the United States in the same years, not including those to the Oversea Dominions, Protectorates, Possessions, etc., of the British Empire?

The exports of domestic produce and manufactures were as follow:—