*SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY: *MR. SPEAKER: Order, order! The As the Act now stands, piece-workers in hon. Member must give notice of that these industries are supplied individually Question. The Question on the Paper with particulars as to their rates of only relates to Scotland. wages. If paragraph a were extended as proposed, the rates of wages would also have to be exhibited on a placard posted in the workroom. But I have received no complaints whatever on the subject, and, in the opinion of the Examiner of Particulars, the extension is unnecessary. In these circumstances I am not prepared to propose a further amendment of an enactment which was carefully settled by Parliament less than a year ago.

*SIR C. DILKE: If the right hon. Gentleman receives a representation from the Scottish Mill and Factory Workers' Union, will he consider the question?

*SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY: I would be happy to receive such a representation; but, if it is to deal with the amendment of the Factory Acts, I am afraid I cannot enter into that.

FEE GRANT (SCOTLAND.) MR. J. H. C. HOZIER (Lanark, S.): I beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether it is the case that Scotland has not received her proper share of the Fee Grant, in consequence of the proportions, due to Scotland and England respectively, having been calculated solely on the original Educational Estimates of each year, and without taking into account the Supplementary Estimates voted for England?

*THE LORD ADVOCATE (Sir CHARLES PEARSON, Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities): It is the case that the Fee Grant paid to Scotland during the financial year now current, and the three preceding financial years, was based upon the original Estimates of each, and that the supplementary Estimates voted for England were not taken into account. Communications on the subject have been addressed by the Scotch Education Department to the Treasury.

MR. J. C. FLYNN (Cork, N.): I wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether the amount of this Fee Grant should be apportioned to Scotland and Ireland not upon the amount of the original Estimate, but upon the amount actually paid?

QUEEN'S COLLEGES (IRELAND). MR. WILLIAM JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in view of the fact that the three Queen's Colleges in Ireland send up for the medical examinations of the Royal University at least three times as many candidates as does the Catholic University School of Medicine, will he explain why one-half of the total of Fellows and Examiners appointed by the Royal University are apportioned to the Catholic University; and, whether there is any clause in the Charter or Statutes of the Royal University giving this representation to the Catholic University at the expense of the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway.

MR. GERALD BALFOUR: The charter and statutes of the Royal University of Ireland empower the Senate to appoint or employ such examiners as may be necessary, and impose no restrictions as to the persons who may be so employed. I am informed by the secretaries to the University that it has been the usual practice ever since its foundation to appoint, as far as possible, onehalf of its ordinary examiners from amongst the professors of the endowed or Queen's colleges, and the other half from the professors of unendowed colleges. This practice has been followed in the medical as well as in the arts faculty.

CORDITE.

COLONEL LOCKWOOD (Essex, Epping): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, whether any cordite has been manufactured in India for use by the troops there?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON, Middlesex, Ealing): As yet no cordite has been made in India; but its manufacture is under consideration.

COLONEL LOCKWOOD: I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, whether the manufacture of cordite, which is supplied under contract with

Messrs. Kynoch's works at Arklow, is sent to Birmingham upon completion?

take into consideration the desirability of providing that the expense of the protection of our Sea Fisheries shall be defrayed by the Imperial Exchequer, and not from local sources derived from the counties and boroughs abutting on

MR. POWELL-WILLIAMS: Messrs. Kynoch hold two contracts-one for gun cordite, and one for cordite ammunition. The gun cordite is made throughout at Arklow, and on completion is delivered the sea? into Government stores at Purfleet. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXThe cordite for the ammunition is CHEQUER (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH, brought over by Messrs. Kynoch from Bristol, W.): If it is necessary to employ Arklow in the form of paste. It is one of Her Majesty's ships for the purfinished at Birmingham, and the cart-pose of protecting the Sea Fisheries, the ridges are made up and completed by expense is of course defrayed by the them at the same place. They are then Imperial Exchequer; but, where this is delivered to Woolwich. not necessary, I see no ground for altering the present law on the subject.

H.M.S. NORTHAMPTON.

SIR LEONARD LYELL (Orkney

Lord of the Admiralty, whether the cruiser Northampton, now about to start on a recruiting trip, is to call at Kirkwall and Lerwick; and, if this has not been already arranged, whether he will include these seaports in the list of places which the Northampton is to

COOKERY LESSONS (BIRMINGHAM). COLONEL LOCKWOOD: I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, whether he has become acquainted with the purport and Shetland): I beg to ask the First of statements lately published in Birmingham to the effect that a class of young girls, at the Waverley Road Board Schools, were made to dissect the bodies of rabbits; were these operations enjoined by the Government Inspector; were they sanctioned by the Department as a necessary part of the education of girls; is the kind of teach- THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADing involved to be continued; and, will MIRALTY: As at present advised the he see that the use of diagrams as illus- Northampton will not visit Kirkwall and trations shall be substituted for such Lerwick in the course of her present experiments?

if so,

visit?

cruise.

ST. JAMES'S NATIONAL SCHOOL,
DEVONPORT.

SIR JOHN GORST: The dissection in question was performed by some 16 girls, not in an elementary school, but in the advanced course of the organised science school. Physiology is a compulsory subject in this course, and the MR. HENRY J. WILSON (York, regulations of the Science and Art W.R., Holmfirth): I beg to ask the Department require a practical acquaint- First Lord of the Admiralty, whether it ance, by the use of a microscope, with is the case, as was recently stated at a the minute structure of the several public meeting at Devonport, that the tissues and organs. None of the girls Admiralty contributed £30 to the were under 14, and nearly all were over St. James's National School, Keyham, 15. The Clerk to the Birmingham Devonport, during the year 1895; if so, School Board says that the actual dis- whether there is an annual payment, section was nothing more than any girl and if he will state the grounds on would necessarily perform in preparing which it is made? a rabbit for stewing, and has probably been done without remark in most cookery kitchens.

SEA FISHERIES.

MR. GORELL BARNES (Kent, Faversham): I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he will

THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY: Yes Sir, a sum of £30 was awarded by the Admiralty to St. James's Church School at Devonport in 1895. The grants to schools in dockyard towns fluctuate each year, and are not necessarily annual. They are made in order to assist schools which are

attended by the children of seamen and marines and dockyard employés, and are allotted independently of religious distinctions, Roman Catholic, Wesleyan, and other schools sharing with National schools in these awards.

AMERICAN MAILS.

CAPTAIN DONELAN: I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether his attention has been called to the Return recently issued showing the time respectively occupied in the carriage of the mails between New York and Queenstown, and between New York and Southampton, during the year 1895; and whether, in view of the marked superiority of the Queenstown route, the Postmaster General will represent to the postal authorities of the United States the advisability of forwarding the mails for Great Britain and Ireland via Queenstown?

FIRING ON THE HIGHWAY (IRELAND). CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork, E.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether he is aware that a man named Patrick Keating, of Kylmoracy, county Tipperary, was recently charged at Carrick-on-Suir Petty Sessions, with firing, with intent to injure, a girl *MR. HANBURY: The Postmaster named Hannah Hickey, while she was General has, of course, had before him standing at her own door, and that the the Return prepared in his Department evidence disclosed that Patrick Keating for the information of the House showcarried the gun along the public road ing the time respectively occupied in the although possessing no licence to carry carriage of the mails between Queenstown arms; that, notwithstanding the fact and New York and between Southampthat the Chairman stated that it was ton and New York during the year 1895. clear from the evidence the shot was fired with the intention of frightening the Hickeys, the District Inspector of Constabulary, who conducted the prose cution, informed the Magistrates that he would not ask them to return the defendant for trial, and that the Bench consequently refused informations; and, whether the Crown will take steps to have the defendant duly tried for the offence with which he was charged, and will also take proceedings against him for carrying arms without a licence?

MR. GERALD BALFOUR: The substance of the charge against Keating is correctly stated in the Question. There was, however, no evidence adduced that he fired at the girl or at any other person. The complainant was unable to say that the gun was directed at her, and she refused, moreover, to swear that Keating fired at her. In the absence of such proof the Magistrate declined to send the case for trial, but, in view of the fact that it was proved the man had discharged his gun on the public road, they placed him under a rule of bail to keep the peace. The Crown, under the circumstances, do not propose to take any further steps as suggested. The question of instituting proceedings against the man for keeping a gun without a licence is now being considered. He is duly licensed to carry a revolver.

First Lord of the Admiralty.

The United States Post Office is thoroughly aware, from weekly returns furnished to it by the Postmaster General, how the service works by both routes, and, speaking generally, sends by the Queenstown route all letters, etc., for Ireland, as well, of course, as all letters, etc., for other parts of the United Kingdom, which are specially superscribed for the Queenstown route. Moreover, the Saturday mails from New York, containing letters, etc., for all parts of the United Kingdom, are regularly carried by the Cunard Company's steamers touching at Queenstown. On Wednesdays, when а subsidised American packet for Southampton and a British steamer for Liverpool via Queenstown are both starting from New York, and the disparity between the transit times is small, the United States Post Office give the preference to their own subsidised packet, and the Postmaster General can scarcely find fault with them for so doing.

STEAM TRAWLING (GALWAY BAY).

CAPTAIN DONELAN: I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether he is aware that the gunboat recently sent to Galway Bay to protect the fishermen from illegal steam trawling, has captured two steam trawlers

while engaged in this unlawful practice | raised for structural alterations; whether in prohibited waters; and whether, in he is aware that, in consequence of that view of the fact that this steam trawling amendment of accounts, the sum of places the lives of over 100 Galway fishermen in nightly peril, he will instruct the law officers of the Crown to prosecute the offenders?

MR. GERALD BALFOUR: It is the fact that on the 21st instant two steam trawlers were seized by a gunboat whilst trawling within prescribed limits in Galway Bay. Proceedings were at once taken against the masters of the trawlers, with the result that they were fined £5 each and costs for the illegal fishing, and their nets were forfeited. I also learn that they were fined in the further sum of £25 each and costs for not burning lights on the night of seizure.

LUNACY.

MR. H. HOBHOUSE (Somerset, E.): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has now communicated further with the Lunacy Commissioners, and if he is now prepared to make a further statement as to the causes of the recent great increase of lunacy and the operation of the 4s. grant, or to institute an Inquiry into the subject?

*SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY: I have had no direct communication recently with the Lunacy Commissioners on this subject, but I have suggested to the Lord Chancellor under whose jurisdiction they are, that, in view of the interest that is being taken in the question, it might be desirable to follow the precedent set by the Irish Government, and direct the Commissioners or some of them to make special inquiries as to the causes of the increase of lunacy, and embody their conclusions in the next annual report, or in a special Paper to be laid on the Table of the House.

ST. MARY MAGDALENE'S SCHOOL,
PADDINGTON.

£94 18s. 7d., which had been deducted under Article 107 of the Code, has been refunded to the managers; and whether, under Article 90 of the Code, any outlay is permitted on the premises beyond the cost of ordinary repairs to appear in the school accounts?

SIR JOHN GORST: The facts are as stated. The expenditure was allowed under Article 90, because it was found that the works done were "renewals " and not "alterations."

EDUCATION GRANTS.

MR. VESEY KNOX (Londonderry): I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury (1) whether he is aware that the Scotch Education Grant Act of 1892 contains precisely the same words relating to the fee grant as the Irish Act of the same year, and whether he can explain why, under these circumstances, the Treasury submitted to Parliament in 1893-4 and 1894-5 an estimate of a fixed amount for Ireland but of an increasing amount for Scotland; (2) whether he can explain why the Scotch grant was calculated with reference to the amount of the English Estimates and not with reference to the English grant, as prescribed by the Act; and (3) whether any application was received from the Scotch Education Department or from the Irish National Education Commissioners claiming that the grants for Scotland and Ireland respectively should be calculated with reference to the English grants and not the English Estimates ; and, if so, when such application was received?

*MR. HANBURY: Yes, Sir; the words are the same in the two Acts. The amounts submitted to Parliament in the years mentioned were those asked for by the Scotch and Irish Education Departments respectively. The point MR. CHARLES MORLEY (Breck-referred to in the last paragraph of the nock): I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, whether the Education Department have allowed the managers of St. Mary MR. KNOX: Does the Treasury disMagdalene's School, Paddington, to claim all responsibility for the framing amend their accounts for the year 1894-5 of the Estimates referred to in the by including in them the special fund Question?

Question was first raised as regards
Scotland in February 1895 and as regards
Ireland in February 1896.