asked the Attorney-General at whose instance the Rules of the Supreme Court in respect of libel actions or otherwise have recently been altered; and what steps have been taken to publish such alterations, so that those who may have recourse to the law shall be aware of any change in their position?

The Rules to which my hon. and gallant Friend refers were made by the Rule Committee of the Supreme Court in the ordinary course of the duties laid upon it by statute. They were published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, and laid before both Houses of Parliament on 15th June, 1933, together with a Memorandum explaining and drawing attention to the alterations in respect of libel actions and otherwise. The Rules and the Memorandum were on sale to the public in the usual way.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland the average weekly expenditure on able-bodied relief by the Poor Law authorities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire for each half-year since the beginning of 1930; and the average number for each half-year of persons relieved in each week?

I am sending my right hon. Friend a table containing the information desired.

asked the Home Secretary whether he has now made inquiries into the circumstances in which a charge of drunkenness and disorderliness was heard in camera by the Aldershot magistrates on 3rd July, 1933; and whether he will let the House know the result of these inquiries ?

I have made inquiries and find that there has apparently been some misconception of what occurred in this case. I am informed that it was dealt with in the small court where the justices had been sitting as a children's court. It so happened that there were no members of the public present at the time, but they would not have been refused admission.

asked the Home Secretary whether any report has yet been made as to the cause of the fire which recently took place at the premises of Messrs. Forbes, Abbott and Lennard; and, if so, whether he is in a position to make a statement as to the cause of such fire?

I have now received a report on the investigations, from which it is clear that the fire was due to a workman cutting with a blowpipe flame a scrap-iron plate situated just outside the wall of a building containing waste material for creating smokescreens. The works' foreman told the workman, who was employed by a contractor, that some of the material inside the building was dangerous, but it does not appear to have been sufficiently realised that the flame or molten metal might penetrate through or under the corrugated iron roof into the building and ignite the material, and this is evidently what occurred. Fortunately only one person was slightly burnt. I am advised that the circumstances were quite exceptional and do not suggest any particular precautions—they illustrate merely the danger of having sources of intense heat near inflammable material; but it has been arranged to include particulars of this case in the next issue of the series of abstracts from reports of industrial accidents which are published by the Home Office for the information of factory occupiers and others. Previous fires at these works have been referred to. I am informed that such fires occurred in May, 1929, and July, 1930, one man being fatally injured in the former case and no one injured in the other, but that these fires were in a different part of the works and due to quite different causes, namely, certain defects in the design of the plant for which no blame could reasonably be attached and which were afterwards remedied.

asked the Home Secretary how many children under 16 years of age, and how many adults of 16 years of age and upwards, in the Metropolitan area of the county of Kent met their deaths as the results of accidents in which mechanically propelled vehicles were involved, in the years 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932?

I regret that the information asked for is not available and could not be obtained without the expenditure of considerable time and trouble.

asked the Home Secretary the number of accidents in the Metropolitan area of the county of Kent for the years 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932, known to have been caused in streets, roads, or public places by motor omnibuses or coaches, motor-cycles (sidecans or solos), private cars or cabs, and motor vans, lorries, etc., respectively; how many of the accidents in each year were fatal; how many non-fatal; how many persons were killed; and how many persons were injured?

I regret that the information asked for is not available and could not be obtained without the expenditure of considerable time and trouble.

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that a convict, on 24th March, 1924, broke away from a working party outside Parkhurst Convict Prison, entered the official quarters of Officer E. T. W. Fry, and made an attack on his daughter by attempting to strangle her with a rope, and made an attack on Mrs. Fry who went to the daughter's assistance; what was the nature of the injuries to the two women; what is their present state of health; and whether any compensation has been paid to Mr. Fry?

Full reports of the incident to which my hon. and gallant Friend refers were made at the time and are on record. Neither Mrs. Fry nor Miss Fry received any physical injury, and, though they suffered some shock, there was nothing to suggest that the case was one for compensation. The only request made to the prison commissioners was for some small financial assistance to enable Mrs. and Miss Fry to take a short holiday, and this request was granted. Mr. Fry, who was transferred to Portsmouth Prison in 1926 and to Lewes Prison in 1931, was superannuated from the prison service last March, and the last medical report on the health of his wife and daughter is a report made in July, 1924.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the financial year ended 31st March, 1933, the number of liquor licences in England and Wales and Scotland, respectively, and the net receipts for duty?

The information desired is contained in the following table:

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been called to the fact that British holders of German investments are unable to obtain direct payment of the proceeds of dividend coupons or interest, and that such moneys are paid to the conversion office for German foreign debts on blocked accounts; and whether he will consider the adoption of retaliatory measures?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for West Fulham (Sir C. Cobb) on 17th July.

asked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs which British industries have been directly affected by the increases in the Australian tariffs since the signing of the Ottawa Agreements?

The following statement gives particulars of the classes of goods in respect of which increases of Customs duty on United Kingdom goods have been made by His Majesty's Government in the Commonwealth of Australia since the signing of the Ottawa Agreements.ment; and the number and percentage each year of those destroyed in consequence of disease, old age, blindness, worn out, and from other causes?

No figures are available for years prior to 1912. For 1912 and subsequent years, except the War years 1915 to 1918 inclusive, information can be obtained from the Annual Reports of the Divisional Inspectors of Mines, but to present it all in the form of a statistical statement would involve an expendi- ture of time and labour that would be quite disproportionate to the value of the result because, as I have explained in reply to previous questions, it has been found that the statistics have been compiled on different bases in different districts.

asked the Secretary for Mines the year or years during which the employment of horses and ponies first became general in mines; whether at any time a number of the horses employed underground were hired from contractors at weekly or daily rates; and when was this practice discontinued?

Horses were commonly employed on the surface at collieries in the seventeenth century, and probably earlier, to work" gins" for winding coal or raising water. Their employment to haul coal on the underground roadways dates from about the middle of the eighteenth century, when wooden, and later iron, wagon ways were adopted underground in the larger mines. In some districts, however, coal was transported below ground by human labour until well into the nineteenth century. Although no statistics are available, it is probable that some impetus to the adoption of horse haulage, in substitution for human labour, was given by the Mines and Collieries Act, 1842, which abolished the employment in mines of women and girls and of boys under 10 years of age.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education what is the number of classes in elementary schools which are in charge of male and female teachers, respectively, distinguishing boys', girls', and mixed I regret that I have no information as to the hiring of horses at collieries.

asked the Secretary for Mines if records are available showing the number of shifts worked per day and per week by horses and ponies employed underground in mines since 1909; and whether, as the hours and shifts during which men and boys are allowed to work below ground have been limited from time to time, it is proposed to limit the working hours or shifts of the horses, in view of the fact that most of the horses always remain below ground?

No records are available which would enable me to answer the first part of the question. As regards the second part, the Coal Mines Act, 1911, provides against excessive hours by the requirement that no horse shall be worked in an unfit condition, and, as I am satisfied from extensive inquiries that this requirement is properly observed, I do not consider it necessary to fix any uniform limit on the working hours of horses in mines.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether the Committee on Coupon Trading have issued their Report; and, if so, when it will be available for the public?

As the hon. Member is no doubt aware, the Report of the Committee on Gift Coupons and Trading Stamps was issued as a Command Paper on Friday last.

asked the Minister of Labour the number of persons on the unemployment register in June, 1933, and in June, 1932?

There were 2,438,108 unemployed persons on the registers of Employment Exchanges in Great Britain at 26th June, 1933, and 2,747,343 at 27th June, 1932.