Compensation for Slaughtered
Tuberculous Cattle.

CAPTAIN FABER: I beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether, seeing the loss which is now borne by breeders and butchers through the frequent slaughtering of fat cattle on account of disease, he can see his way to recommend substantial compensation for them, and also a uniform system of inspection of meat by qualified men.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. JOHN BURNS, Battersea): My hon. friend has asked me to reply to this Question. I presume that the disease referred to in it is tuberculosis. If so, I would point out that the slaughter of animals suffering therefrom is seldom effected at the instance of local authorities. Their duties are in the main confined to the examination and seizure of unsound meat intended for the food of man, and hence they do not commonly arise until after the animal has been slaughtered. I cannot make any promise with regard to compensation, but I may state that the Local Government Board have issued more than one circular with a view of securing uniformity in the methods of inspection and seizure of meat, and they believe that the views expressed in those circulars are usually acted upon by local authorities.

Excessive Motor Speeds. MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland): I beg to ask the Prime Minister if his attention has been called to the risk to life and limb by the speed at which motor cars are driven on the roads belonging to the public, and to the damage done to the roads by heavy cars being driven at an excessive speed; and whether he will consider the desirability of introducing legislation to stop racing on public roads.

MR. JOHN BURNS: My attention has been called to the matters referred to in the Question. I am considering whether anything can be done to prevent damage to roads by heavy motor cars. Driving motor cars at excessive speed is forbidden by law now. The administration of the law is practically a matter for the local police.

CAPTAIN CRAIG: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the hon. Member who asked the Question was himself heavily fined for exceeding the speed limit?

MR. JOHN BURNS: That knowledge. would not affect my interpretation of the law on the subject.

MR. CATHCART WASON: Has the right hon. Gentleman no jurisdiction about racing on public roads?

MR. JOHN BURNS: The question of racing on roads is entirely within the jurisdiction of the local police.

MR. STANLEY WILSON (Yorkshire, E.R. (Holderness): Where is there any racing on roads?

[No Answer was returned.]

Poor Law Chaplains.

T

MR. J. M. OBERT ON: I b g ask the President of the Local Government Board how many Poor Law Unions pay Nonconformist ministers and Catholic priests for clerical services.

MR. JOHN BURNS: Appointments of this kind do not require the sanction of the Local Government Board, and I am unable to say in how many cases they have been made. Some information was obtained on the subject in 1901 as regards the Metropolis. There were then in London, forty-six workhouses and twenty-four workhouse infirmaries. appeared that Roman Catholic instructors had been appointed at twenty-five workhouses and sixteen infirmaries, whilst there were Nonconformist instructors at six workhouses and three infirmaries.

It

MR. T. M. HEALY: Will the right hon. Gentleman extend his survey to Ireland, where in 162 workhouses nearly all controlled by Catholics, we pay both Catholic and Presbyterian chaplains ?

MR. JOHN BURNS: Ireland is without my pale.

Post Office Telegraph and Telephone Accounts.

MR. HAROLD COX (Preston): I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether

he has yet completed his examination into the accounts of the Post Office telegraphs and telephones, with a view to presenting them to the House in such a form as to show the net annual profit or net annual loss to the taxpayer after allowing for depreciation of plant, for interest upon loans, and for compound interest upon payments made out of the Exchequer, to meet capital expenditure or to meet losses in previous years; and how soon he will be able to publish such

accounts.

THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON, Tower Hamlets, Poplar) As my hon. friend is aware, last autumn I appointed a Committee to consider the various accounts and returns presented to Parliament in connection with the telegraph and telephone services, and to report in what manner those accounts and returns can be modified or supplemented so as to show more clearly the financial results of those services. The Committee consisted of Mr. C. A. King, the Comptroller and AccountantGeneral of the Post Office, Mr. Blain, Assistant-Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Bromley, Accountant-General of the Board of Education, and Mr. Peat, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. I have received a preliminary Report from the Committee, and in the Estimates for the year 1908-9 a separation has been made in the manner recommended by the Committee, between telegraph and tele. phone expenditure; and the telephone revenue will be shown separately. The Committee are now examining the further question of the preparation of accounts so as to show the profit or loss to the taxpayer on each service. The points mentioned by my hon. friend will no doubt be considered by them.

G.P.O.-Overwork in the Secretary's Office.

MR. CLAUDE HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton): I beg to ask the PostmasterGeneral, whether he is aware that the practice of working beyond the prescribed hours in the Secretary's office has become usual, arising from pressure of work; whether two members of the staff of this office are at present absent on prolonged sick absence through nervous breakdown arising from overwork; whether the chief medical officer has made any report to

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: I am aware that there has been great pressure of work in several branches of the Secretary's office for some time past, mainly in connection with the recent Select Committee on Post Office Servants and the changes which are now being carried out in consequence of its Report; and I highly appreciate the zeal and willingness with which the staff of that office of all grades have met the demands upon them. No members of the staff are at present away on prolonged sick absence from the causes stated, and, in any case, it would not be part of the duty of the chief medical officer to have cognisance of such a case, if one existed.

MR. CLAUDE HAY: Have any officers been absent on sick leave, having broken down through over-work.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: From time to time officers are absent through illness, but I am glad to say none are at present.

MR. CLAUDE HAY. Have they recently been?

[No Answer was returned.]

The Postmaster-General and the
Earl of Granard.

MR. CLAUDE HAY: I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether fines, reductions in rank, and dismissals of Post Office officials, ordered in the name of the Postmaster-General but actually approved under the authority of the Earl of Granard, are valid; if so, what is the authority that makes them so; and, if not, what course he proposes to take as regards these cases.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: I found, soon after coming into office, that the mass of detail for which I was responsible was so great that, as I did not enjoy the advantage of an Under-Secretary, I required the assistance of a Parliamentary colleague. I represented the matter to the Prime Minister, and requested him to give me the assistance of some member of the Government who was not occupied

Minister kindly assented to this course, and appointed Lord Granard, a member of the Government, to perform on my behalf and on my responsibility such duties as I might assign to him, and to represent the Post Office in the House of Lords. I accept, of course, full responsibility for every act done by Lord Granard, with whom I am in daily communication and in whose judgment I have full confidence. I should like to add that I am much indebted to Lord Granard for the valuable assistance he has given me, without which I should have found it difficult adequately to fulfil my official duties during the past two years.

MR. CLAUDE HAY: While I should be the last to question the capacity of the noble Lord, I must ask will the right hon. Gentleman state under what statute he has power to depute his responsibility to

another?

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: I have power under various statutes, and under my warrant, or whatever it is called the document I signed when I came into office-I have power to do what I have done in Lord Granard's case.

MR. CLAUDE HAY: Has the right hon. Gentleman power to depute to another the responsibility of signature ?

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: Certainly. I am, of course, responsible in the last

resort.

Confidential Reports in the Post
Office.

MR. CLAUDE HAY: I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he feels bound by the recommendation made in the 74th paragraph of the Report of the Hobhouse Committee, in which the Committee recommend that every reasonable opportunity should be afforded of bring ing the accuser and accused face to face, and that every charge made in connection with secret reports should be communicated in full to the accused, and every opportunity afforded of procuring rebutting evidence and of proving his innocence; and, if so, what steps he proposes to take to secure that his approval of this recommendation be made known to all members of this staff and to secure that it is fairly and freely carried out.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: I have given the recommendation contained in Paragragh 74 of the Report and the other paragraphs, referring to the question of confidential reporting, etc., careful consideration. But I have promised to discuss the question with some of the associations representing the postal servants, and I desire to hear what they may have to say on the matter before laying down definite instructions in regard to the matter.

Cardiff Postmen as Sorters.

MR. T. F. RICHARDS (Wolverhampton, W.): I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that several postmen at Cardiff, who have been employed since April, 1906, as an experiment on minor sorting duties, for which allowances of 4s. per week were paid them, with the understanding that if the scheme was not finally adopted these allowances were to cease, are now being deprived of the allowances, although the scheme has been finally adopted in accordance with the Hobhouse Committee's recommendation that minor sorting duties should be performed by postmen; and will he say what action he proposes to take in the matter.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: The scheme of employing postmen on full indoor duties was an experiment and is not being adopted as a permanent arrangement, and the allowances paid during the experimental stage of this scheme for exceptional work will disappear as the duties are rearranged. I am adopting the recommendation of the Select Committee (Paragraphs 328 and 341) that primary sorting should be one of the recognised duties of postmen.

Teachers' Registration Council. SIR PHILIP MAGNUS (London University): I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that the registrar of the old Teachers' Registration Council was appointed in 1902 from among a large number of candidates for the post, under an agreement approved by the Board, which stated that, whilst the engagement was terminable by six months notice on either side, the age of retirement should be sixty years, or, by the consent of the council, sixty-five years; whether, having regard to the fact that the appointment

whether the two suspected cases of rabies at Northampton have, on investigation, proved to be cases of that disease.

THE TREASURER OF THE HOUSEHOLD (Sir EDWARD STRACHEY, Somersetshire, S.): The results of the inoculative tests made in connection with the suspected cases of rabies were, I am glad to say, negative, and the Muzzling Order was revoked on the 31st ultimo by an Order which comes into operation to-morrow.

MR. LAURENCE HARDY: Then is it the opinion that these were not cases of rabies at all?

SIR EDWARD STRACHEY: Yes.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Holland. MR. JESSE COLLINGS (Birmingham, Bordesley): I beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of when he was at the International Dairy Agriculture, whether he is aware that Congress at the Hague the wide prevalence of foot-and-mouth disease in Holland was an admitted fact; if so, whether he inquired what became of the milk frəm the infected dairies, and can he state the result of his inquiries; and whether he is aware of the statement made at a recent meeting of the Scottish Chamber of Agriculture by Mr. J. Spier to the effect that he, Mr. Spier, when in Holland on the same occasion, ascertained that 300 farms were declared as infected centres.

SIR EDWARD STRACHEY: On one farm I visited I was informed that the milk from affected cows was sterilised before sale. The reply to the other inquiries of the right hon. Member is in the affirmative.

MR. JESSE COLLINGS: Are any steps being taken to prevent the importation of produce from that infected area into this country-produce such as meat, butter, and cheese?

SIR EDWARD STRACHEY: I would remind the right hon. Gentleman, who was at one time associated with the Local Government Board, that that is a Question which should be addressed to that