asked the Secretary to the Treasury (1) whether he is aware that it is provided under The National Insurance Act, 1911, First Schedule, part 2, paragraph (i), that any class which may be specified in a special order that their employment is of such a nature that it is ordinarily adopted as a subsidiary employment only, and not as the principal means of livelihood, can be exempted from the operation of the said Act; whether he is aware that the Foyle and Bann Fishery Company employ each year during the fishing season, for a period of about twelve weeks in the summer time, about thirty persons as fishermen, whose means of living during the rest of the year is derived from farming or other occupations on their own account, and who do not earn during the year any wages save from the said company; whether these men are included in the class so entitled to be exempted under the said Act; if so, why, when the Foyle and Bann Fishery Company applied to the Irish Insurance Commissioners, placing the fact with regard to these employés before them, and requested them to make a special exemption order under the said Act, their request has been declined; and (2) whether he will state what advantages the employés of the Bann and Foyle Fishery Company will receive, under the National Insurance Act, from being insured each year during only twelve weeks in respect of the contributions paid by them during such period, and what benefit in respect of the contributions by their paid employés during the like period; and whether in the circumstances the Government will direct the Commissioners to make the Special Order asked for in this case under the terms of the provisions of the Act which was passed expressly to protect such classes of employés?

I propose to take questions 2 and 3 together. The employment referred to by the hon. Member is not subsidiary employment, but whole-time employment lasting for a period of several months. It does not, therefore, fall within the class of employment which could be specified as subsidiary by Special Order. Persons engaged in this employment are entitled to sanatorium benefit from the date of their entry into insurance, and I am informed that some of them are insured during the remainder of the year in respect of other employments. During periods of temporary unemployment such persons need not pay contributions, though they may do so if they choose, in order to qualify for benefits or to avoid falling into arrears.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the sale of the estate of the Earl of Devon, situate at Newcastle West, in the county of Limerick, is yet completed?

The reply is in the negative. This estate is the subject of proceedings for sale direct by the vendor to the tenants under the Irish Land Act, 1903, and will be dealt with in order of priority on the principal register of direct sales (all cash), but, having regard to the claims of other estates, the Commissioners are not in a position to say when it will be reached.

asked the Chief Secretary whether the Congested Districts Board continues to give financial assistance to co-operative credit banks; and, if so, will he state to how many banks this has been done; the maximum and minimum amount of assistance given; and what rate of interest is charged on these loans?

The Congested Districts Board have advanced by way of loan capital to a number of agricultural credit banks in the congested districts, of which £5,157 is still outstanding in respect of fifty-five banks. The amount of assistance given to individual banks varied from £30 to £200. The rate of interest charged by the Board varies from 2½ to 3½ per cent. The Board have also for a number of years been paying a subsidy of £350 per annum towards the expenses of inspection and organisation of credit banks in the congested districts.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he can give the number of lads between the ages of eighteen and nineteen, nineteen and twenty, and twenty and twenty-one, who emigrated between the 31st March, 1912, and the 31st March, 1913?

I regret that the particulars asked for by the hon. Member cannot be given because the Returns obtained are not sufficiently precise for a classification by each year of age. I hope, however, in the Report on Emigration and Immigration in 1912—which will be issued very shortly—to be able to give some information as to the ages of passengers.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that four letters have been addressed to him by the Engineer-in-Chief's Office (General Post Office) Supplementary Clerks' Association respecting the proposal to appoint a superintendent engineer's clerk to the engineer-in-chief's office, and begging for the postponement of such appointment pending the issue of the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Post Office Servants; whether he can state why no reply beyond a formal acknowledgment has been accorded to these letters; whether the officer proposed for the appointment was for some six years the chief clerk to the engineer-in-chief when the latter was superintending engineer of the North Wales district; and whether he will suspend action until the Select Committee's Recommendations have been published?

A post for a first-class clerk attached to the engineer-in-chief's staff has recently been authorised, in addition to the previously existing establishment. The post has been created for the special purpose of co-ordinating the work in the different superintending engineers' offices, and it is necessary that the holder should have practical experience of the work of the districts. No officer on the engineer-in-chief's clerical staff possesses such experience, and the selection has therefore been made from the staff in the districts. The officer selected is a first-class clerk in the North Wales district, of which the present engineer-in-chief was superintending engineer for about six years. A reply has now been sent to the representations from the engineer-in-chief's staff, conveying an assurance that, pending the Report of the Select Committee, no promotion to an ordinary vacancy in the engineer-in-chief's office will be made from the district offices.

asked the Postmaster-General the reason for the delay in providing telephone facilities in the Ash Vale district; and is he aware that certain agreements were signed as far back as last October, but that the facilities asked for have not been granted even after a delay of seven months?

Estimates of the cost of opening a telephone exchange at Ash Vale are being prepared, and I hope shortly to be in a position to give a decision in the matter. I am sorry that the pressure of work in the engineering department has so much retarded the settlement of the case.

asked the Postmaster-General why Mr. W. Rigney, recently in charge of linesmen in the Letterkenny, Enniskillen, and Dundalk section (Ireland) telegraph service, is retired with a pension of £34 13s. 5d. per annum and a retiring gratuity of £101 14s. 1d., while en- titled to a pension of £50 per annum and a retiring gratuity of £140; and is he aware that the Secretary to the Postmaster-General wrote to Mr Rigney on the 10th June, 1892, to the effect that the date on which he joined the 2nd telegraph battalion Royal Engineers, namely, 3rd August, 1878, would count towards pension, which is not fulfilled by the above pension and retiring allowance?

The pension and additional allowance which have been awarded Mr. Rigney are the full amounts for which he is eligible under the Superannuation Acts in respect of his twenty-four years' Post Office service. It is unfortunately the case that owing to a misapprehension Mr. Rigney was informed that his ten years' military service preceding his Post Office service would be counted towards his superannuation award; but the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, to whom the facts were fully represented, state that they have no power to include that service.