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the basis upon which the units of work were formed in the case of the Shrewsbury postal district; and whether the work of the travelling sorting staff was included in the calculations of the Department.

MR. KEARLEY: The Departmental | Classification of Shrewsbury Post Office. Committee which has recently been MR. JOHN WARD: I beg to ask the appointed is to consider a limited subject, Postmaster-General whether he can state viz., how far any change is desirable in the form in which the trade accounts of the United Kingdom are published as regards the countries from which imports are received and to which exports are sent. Instructions, however, have recently been sent to His Majesty's Consular Officers with regard to the form in which statistics should be given in their reports, which it is hoped will meet the object

which the hon. Member has in view.

Postal Servants' Grievances. MR. WILES (Islington, S.): I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he can state approximately the date on which the Departmental Inquiry appointed to report on the small classes of postal servants who were not heard before the Hobhouse Committee, will be made public.

THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON, Tower Hamlets, Poplar) I regret that it has not yet been possible to issue the result of the Departmental Inquiry into the smaller classes of postal servants who were not heard before the Parliamentary Committee. Their number is great-nearly 100-but the result will be published as soon as possible; and in any case any advantages which may accrue from the revision will date back to 1st January.

work in the case of Shrewsbury were calculated in the same manner as in the case of all other offices, and the work performed by the Shrewsbury staff in the travelling post offices was taken into account. Fresh returns of work are being prepared.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: The units of

Classification of Stoke-on-Trent Post
Office.

MR. JOHN WARD: I beg to ask the Postmaster-General if he can state the names and the number of the officers in the Stoke-on-Trent postal district which were excluded from the calculations of the department when deciding the units. of work and classification of that district.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: The question is not understood. The units of

work at Stoke-on-Trent have been calculated in the usual way and they give credit for all work done by the staff of the Stoke-on-Trent Office including those officers employed at the branch offices at Burslem, Hanley, and Longton. Fresh returns of work are now being taken.

Postal Servants and the Territorial Force.
MR. HAROLD COX (Preston): I beg
to ask the Postmaster-General what
additional expense will be involved by
the regulations authorised by the Trea-
sury providing for the grant of special
leave for postal servants who are members of the work is taken into account.

hon. Gentleman take into account the
MR. JOHN WARD: Does the right
whole of the work of the district when
deciding on the status of the office; or
are only a few selected offices taken ?

of the Territorial Forces; and whether this additional expense will be charged to Post Office or to Army Votes.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: I am in communication with the Treasury on the subject of the Regulations they have laid down in regard to granting leave to civil servants who are members of the Territorial Army to enable them to attend training in camp. The matter is not settled yet.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: The whole

MR. JOHN WARD: Take the case of Stoke-on-Trent. Is the calculation confined to that office ?

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON'S reply was. inaudible.

MAJOR ANSTRUTHER-GRAY (St. Andrew's Burghs): Does the new unit scale apply to the whole country?

. MR. SYDNEY BUXTON :
returns have been taken out for Scot-
land.

Classification of Post Offices.

MR. JOHN WARD: I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware

or

Special Member for the Crewe Division, as
Ecclesiastical Commissioner, whether the
Commissioners, when refusing to renew
leases of their property, are under any
statutory obligation to compensate publi-
cans, shopkeepers, manufacturers,
any other persons, who may be doing
a profitable business, at the expiration
of their leases; and, if they are under
no statutory obligation to do so, whether
it is customary for the Commissioners
voluntarily to compensate those whose
business may suffer or be ruined by
the non-renewal of their leases.

that the calculations of the Department as to cost of living in different towns have been made from a Report collected by the late Government in 1905; whether he is aware that such Report was laid before the Hobhouse Committee, and rejected by that Committee as unsatisfactory and unreliable in several important particulars, and that the Select Committee ordered a new and up-to-date investigation to be undertaken before the final classification of towns and districts was made; whether it is proposed to make such inquiry; and whether classification will be delayed pending the results of the investigation recommended by the Committee.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: The Select

MR. TOMKINSON (Cheshire, Crewe): The Commissioners are not under any special obligation to pay compensation. They are in the same position as other owners of real property, and it is not their practice to give compensation for the non-renewal of leases.

Larceny Bill.

MR. COURTHOPE :

I beg to ask the Patronage Secretary to the Treasury on what grounds he objects to the Second Reading of the Larceny Bill.

THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRE

Committee recommended in Paragraph 260 of their Report that the inquiry into the cost of living which began in 1905 should be continued and completed as soon as possible. This recommendation is being acted upon and the classification TARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. GEORGE of towns is being completed as rapidly WHITELEY, Yorkshire, W.R., Pudsey): as possible. The classification already In the opinion of the Government, it announced, and the final classification is not expedient that the Bill should when announced, will, as I have already proceed without discussion. stated, be always subject to revision, as local circumstances change, or as any fresh information in regard to the cost of living in any particular place may alter the conclusion come to by the Board of

Trade.

MR. JOHN WARD: Am I to understand from that answer that a Report which was rejected by the Hobhouse Committee as inaccurate is the basis on which the right hon. Gentleman is fixing

the status of offices?

Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON : That Report referred to only a few towns, a large number had been and are being examined, subject to correction by the Board of Trade.

Ecclesiastical Commissioners' Estates.
SIR RANDAL CREMER (Shoreditch,

Morrogh Bernard Estate, Cahirciveen.

MR. BOLAND (Kerry, S.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that purchase agreements on the Morrogh Bernard estate, near Cahirciveen, were signed within the last few days; whether he is aware that John Golden, an evicted tenant on this estate, made application to the Estates Commissioners for reinstatement about four years ago; and can he say what steps have been or will now be taken to secure Golden's reinstatement.

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR IRELAND (Mr. T. W. RUSSELL, Tyrone, S.) The purchase agreements referred to in the Question have not yet been lodged with the Estates Commissioners.

niece.

the case of John Golden and have decided | vation, Mr. Commissioner O'Brien rethat he is a suitable person to receive fused to sanction advances in certain a holding if it should be found possible cases in which the Board brought in to provide him with one. The particular agreements for sale, but this order was holding from which he was evicted is subsequently reversed on appeal. The stated to be in the occupation of his Congested Districts Board, however, agreed in 1901 to sell the estate without any reservations. The Board originally proposed to sell Lough Glynn House and demesne in one lot, and they received an offer of £11,000 which they declined as being insufficient. Subsequently the Board sold for £2,100 the house and 220 acres (of which 120 acres consists of water) to the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese for the purpose of establishing a technical school. A second portion, consisting of agricultural land and bogs which formed part of the demesne, was sold by the Board for £11,300, and they still retain a plantation of 200 acres which affords a revenue for the benefit of the estate generally. The fact, therefore, is that, by declining the original offer for the sale of the house and demesne as one lot, a considerable advantage has been derived, and it is not the case that there has been any loss to the vendor.

Crosslee's Estate, Cookstown. CAPTAIN CRAIG (Down, E.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can explain the cause of the delay on the part of the Estates Commissioners in the completion of the sale of Crosslee's estate, in the Cookstown Union, County Tyrone; and when is it expected that the matter will be wound up and the townlands of Tullydonnell and Tolvin

vested in the tenants.

MR. T. W. RUSSELL: The Estates Commissioners made an offer for the purchase of the estate of Porter and Crosslee which the Land Judge did not feel able to accept. The Commissioners have directed a further inspection of the estate with the view of reconsider ing their offer, and it is anticipated that the matter will again come before the Land Judge during the coming sittings of the Court.

Lough Glynn House.

CAPTAIN CRAIG: I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that Commissioner O'Brien, in 1900, prevented the sale of the sporting rights in connection with the sale of Lough Glynn House to a lay purchaser; whether, as a result of the Commissioner's action, an agitation against this purchase was commenced by the tenants, with the result that the sale of the house was abandoned and the premises were subsequently sold, at a much reduced price to a foreign religious community; and if it is proposed to make any compensation to the vendor for the loss directly entailed by the action of the Commissioner.

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Coal Mines (Eight Hours) Bill. MR. T. W. RUSSELL: In the year LORD R. CECIL: I beg to ask 1900, the Congested Districts Board the Prime Minister when it is proproposed to sell the Dillon estate of about posed to take the Second Reading of 92,000 acres, reserving the sporting the Coal Mines (Eight Hours) (No. 2) rights. In consequence of this reser- Bill.

MR. ASQUITH: I am not yet in a position to fix a date for the Second Reading.

Payments for New Licences.

*MR. LEIF JONES (Westmoreland, Appleby) asked whether it was not the case that the longest period for which these licences could be granted was seven years, and that long before the fourteen years had expired they must come up for renewal.

MR. GIBB (Middlesex, Harrow): I beg to ask the Prime Minister if he will lay upon the Table particulars of the MR. ASQUITH replied that seven cases referred to by him on the introduction of the Licensing Bill, in which years was the longest period for which considerable lump sums have been paid such licences could be granted.

down as a condition of the grant of new licences, with an estimate of the licence value for one year in each case.

MR. ASQUITH: All available particulars as to the payments imposed on the grant of new licences under the Act of 1904 are shown in Table IV. of the Annual Volumes of Licensing Statistics. I may mention that sums varying from £1,500 to £9,000 have been charged. I have no information on which to base

an estimate of the licence value for one year in any of the cases shown in the Tables.

Monopoly Value of On-Licences. MR. SAMUEL ROBERTS: I beg to ask the Prime Minister whether he is &ware that there are in existence a number of on-licences, the full capital monopoly value of which has been paid by their owners in accordance with Section 4 of the Licensing Act, 1904; and whether it is intended, under the provisions of the Licensing Bill now before Parliament, that these licences shall, after fourteen years, be subject to renewal only on condition that a further monopoly value be paid for them.

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MR. ASQUITH: I should like to see January, 1908, and how much money

NEW BILLS.

HEALTH ACTS AMENDMENT (MARKETS) BILL.

"To enable rural district councils to

the same period if the Bill introduced by the present Government had been an Act; how many licences would be likely PUBLIC to lapse under the Act of 1904 during the next fourteen years, i.e., from 1st January, 1909, and what would be the probable compensation to tenants during that period; and what would be the amount of compensation to tenants under the proposed Licensing Bill should it

become an Act.

MR. ASQUITH: The only figures available are those of the compensation paid to licence-holders as a whole, who include many persons besides tenants, and even these are not available for any period before 1st January, 1906. It is from the nature of the case quite impossible to frame conjectural estimates of the kind contemplated by the latter part of the Question, and I can only repeat what I said in answer to the hon. Member for the Newbury Division on 28th March, viz., that the payments to be made to licence-holders under the

Bill may be expected to be considerably larger than those made under the Act of 1904.

Revenue from Alcohol.

MR. PIKE PEASE (Darlington): I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the amount of revenue, including both Customs and Excise, derived from alcohol during the last twenty years.

MR. ASQUITH: I have had a statement prepared giving the information asked for in the Question in tabular form, which will be circulated with the Votes.

NEW MEMBERS SWORN.

Right hon. Walter Runciman, for Parliamentary Borough of Dewsbury.

James Fitzalan Hope, esquire, for Parliamentary Borough of Sheffield (Central Division).

Henry William Edmond Petty-Fitzmaurice, esquire, commonly called Earl of Kerry, for County of Derby (Western Division).

VOL. CLXXXVII. [FOURTH SERIES.]

provide Markets," presented by Mr. Rendall; supported by Mr. Hicks Beach, Mr. Howard, Mr. Abel Smith, and Mr. Rogers; to be read a second time upon Tuesday next, and to be printed. [Bill 196.]

ENGINES AND BOILERS (PERSONS IN CHARGE) (No. 2) BILL.

"To grant certificates to Persons in Charge of Steam and Motor Engines, Boilers, and steam and motor cranes, presented by Mr. Haslam; supported by Sir Thomas Roe, Mr. Bowerman, and Mr. William Edwin Harvey; to be read a second time upon Monday next, and to be printed. [Bill 198.]

NEW-BORN CHILDREN (PROTECTION)

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BILL.

To provide for the better Protection of the Lives of New-born Children," presented by Lord Robert Cecil; supported by Mr. Shackleton, Mr. Simon, and Mr. Chiozza Money; to be read a second time upon Thursday, and to be printed. [Bill 199.]

66

HOME WORK BILL.

To provide for the better regulation of Home industries," presented by Mr. Barnes; supported by Mr. Keir Hardie, Mr. Wilkie, Mr. Cameron Corbett, Mr. Cleland, Mr. Rainy, Mr. Charles Duncan, Mr. Summerbell, Mr. Parker, Mr. Jowett, Mr. Seddon, and Mr. Younger; to be read a second time upon Monday next, and to be printed. [Bill 200.]

ARMY COUNCIL BILL.

"To transfer to the Army Council certain statutory powers and duties of the Secretary of State and other officers; and for other purposes connected therewith," presented by Mr. Secretary Halread a second time upon Monday next, dane; supported by Mr. Acland; to be and to be printed. [Bill 197.]

DAYLIGHT SAVING BILL.

The Select Committee on the Daylight Saving Bill was nominated of: Mr. 2 S

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