certainly has not said a syllable about was no struggle the other way, because that remedy in his speech. He said there was nothing in the Act to prevent something about differences of opinion the smaller tenants availing themselves that have arisen in the ascertainment of of it. the price of an estate and the value of farms and properties, but I would point out that the first offers and first refusals often have to be reconsidered again and again. I absolutely decline to be drawn into a discussion on the administration of the Act, which must be left to those who are entrusted by Parliament with the great responsiblity of seeing what is just and right in that behalf. It would, I venture to think, be entirely unbecoming for your Lordships to allow your selves to be drawn into a discussion as to the way in which an Act, which has only just been passed, is approached by the different parties, who are deeply interested in the manner in which it is to be carried out. 66 are to What remedy has the noble Lord suggested? I believe in the power of an Executive Government and of a Sovereign as much as anyone, but his remedy is that we should wave a magician's wand and arrest the working of the Land Act. Did your Lordships ever hear anything like it. How is the Government to suspend an Act of Parliament that is working, and whose operations are being carried on daily by a staff appointed and selected for that purpose? Such a thing as that is not within the region of argument or discussion. My noble friend goes on to say that by a similar exercise of impossible power we stay all the fair-rent inquiries in Ireland. Well, my Lords, anyone who knows anything of Irish land administration knows that it dates back to Mr. Gladstone's Bill of 1881. That is now the law of the land, and it has been dealt with by amendment in repeated legislation since; and the idea that it is within the scope or power of any Executive Government, without coming to Parliament, to suspend the working, not only of the last great Act, but of the entire Land Code in Ireland, is not a matter which is within the range of practical discussion. venture to hope that my noble friend, if he is not satisfied entirely with what has been said, will see that his Motion is, at all events, a little out of place at the present time. My noble friend repeated two words seven or eight times-one was the word culture," and the other was the word "failure." He seemed to derive comfort from the repetition of the word "failure," and sometimes he said "the admitted failure." Who admits it? Anyone in his senses will deny it. The Act has only been working some three months, and we know from debates elsewhere, and from figures that have been published, that its operation has been sound and beneficent. Already something like £1,500,000 worth of land has been sold, and surely that is very satisfactory in the short time that the Act has been in operation. Again, over 3,000 holdings have been purchased by the occupying tenants. The work is still going on well, every attention is paid to the administration of the Act, and there is every expectation that its operation will grow and extend. Is it not unreasonable, in the case of such a great Act as this, to come forward in such a short period and expect that you will be able to be in a position to pass any judgment upon it? There is nothing to prevent small tenants availing themselves of the provisions in the Act. There was a considerable struggle when the Act was passing through the other House, and also here, to ensure that the larger tenants were not excluded. That was a great and legitimate struggle, but there drawn. I LORD MUSKERRY: In reply to the noble and learned Lord I may say that I am not at all satisfied, for the principal points mentioned in my Motion and in my speech have not been alluded to. I refer to the question of the unfortunate agricultural labourers of Ireland and also that of the town trade, neither of which questions has been dealt with. As, however, I am not going to meet with any support in your Lordships' House I can only ask permission to withdraw the Motion. Motion by leave of the House, with COMMITTEE OF SELECTION FOR THE L. Ashcombe Report from, That the Committee have nominated the following Lords to serve on the Standing Committee: L.Arch bp. of Canter- V. Knutsford bury. L. Heneage L. Hawkesbury L. Ludlow L. Glanusk L. Avebury L. Stanmore L. Alverstone Read, and ordered to lie on the Table. Adjourned at ten minutes past Five o'clock, till To-morro half-past Ten o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Monday, 22nd February, 1904. The House met at Two of the Clock. UNOPPOSED PRIVATE BILL BUSINESS. PRIVATE BILLS (STANDING ORDER 62 COMPLIED WITH). Mr. SPEAKER laid upon the Table Report from one of the Examiners of Petitions for Private Bills, That, in the case of the following Bills, referred on the First Reading thereof, Standing Order No. 62 has been complied with, viz. :-Midland Railway Bill, Watford and District Tramways (Extension of Time) Bill. Ordered, That the Bills be read a second time. PRIVATE BILLS [LORDS]. Mr. SPEAKER laid upon the Table Report from one of the Examiners of Petitions for Private Bills, That, in respect of the Bills comprised in the List reported by the Chairman of Ways and Means as intended to originate in the House of Lords, he has certified that the Standing Orders have been complied with in the following case, viz. :--Preston and Lytham Tramways and Tramroad. ELECTRIC LIGHTING (LONDON) BILL (STANDING ORDERS APPLICABLE THERETO COMPLIED WITH). Mr. SPEAKER laid upon the Table Report from one of the Examiners of Petitions for Private Bills, pursuant to the Order of the House of the 18th day of this instant February, That, in the case of the following Bill, the Standing Orders which are applicable thereto have MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty): To ask the Secretary for Scotland if he will state how many public schools in each of the crofting counties have no water supply laid on to the premises. (Answered by Mr. A. Graham Murray.) My only information in regard to the subject of the hon. Member's Question is based upon the observations made by the inspectors of the Education Department in the course of their visits to schools. The matter, however, is primarily one for the sanitary authority, and no exact statistics can be compiled from the inspectors' reports. Many of the schools in these districts appear not to have a supply of water laid on by pipes; but it does not follow that other methods of supply more suitable to the local circumstances may not be satisfactory. Wherever they have reason to think that it is deficient, the inspectors call attention to the fact and urge improvement. MR. WEIR: To ask the Secretary for Scotland if he will state how many public schools have been closed in each of the crofting counties during the past year on account of an outbreak of infectious disease, the name of each such school, the period during which it was closed, and the nature of the disease. (Answered by Mr. A. Graham Murray.) I am sending the hon. Member a list giving the information asked for in his Question. The list is too voluminous to form part of a printed answer to a Question. New Inclosure in Hyde Park. MR. COGHILL (Stoke-upon-Trent): To ask the hon. Member for Chorley, as representing the First Commissioner of Works, if he will state by whose authority a new inclosure has been formed in the centre of Hyde Park, on the north side of the Serpentine; to what purposes will it be devoted; what is the extent of the public; and whether the inclosure is to be of a temporary or of a permanent character. (Answered by Lord Balcarres.) The new inclosure in Hyde Park, to which my hon. friend refers, is being formed by the Office of Works, and will contain plant-houses and forcing-frames for the plants required for the service of the Royal parks, in place of those now in use, which stand in Kensington Gardens and spoil the architectural effect of the Palace and of Wren's Orangery. Some of the existing houses are in bad condition, and it is essential that they should be renewed. There has always been a service-yard in Hyde Park, and the same spot was considered to be a far more suitable and central position for planthouses for the parks. It is therefore determined to remove the plant and frame ground altogether to Hyde Park by an enlargement of the existing serviceyard. The work is specially provided for in the Vote for Royal Parks, the first instalment of the cost having been passed in May last. The area now occupied by the houses and frames in Kensington Gardens will, when vacated, be laid out as an ornamental garden. Substantially the public will gain three acres of lawn and flower-beds in exchange for about an equal area of grass-land taken into the new frame-ground. When the works are all finished and the plantations grown there will be also a gain in picturesque effect, both in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Postal Deliveries in County Tyrone. MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.): To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that, in a district of country from three quarters of a mile to three miles around Fivemiletown, county Tyrone, there is only a tri-weekly delivery of letters and parcels, the postman passing daily within a few perches of part of the district; and if he will endeavour to have this grievance remedied. (Answered by Lord Stanley.) It is the fact that in a part of the district served from Fivemiletown a delivery is afforded on three days a week only. I have powers. Since then a change had Smethwick; St. Mellons; and Newtaken place in the policy of the Com- bridge; to lie upon the Table. RETURNS, REPORTS, ETC. PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCIES (ELECTORS, ETC.) (UNITED KINGDOM). Return presented, relative thereto [Address 3rd February; Sir Charles Dilke]; to lie upon the Table, and to be printed. [No. 69.] mittee, which now required very strict proof as to the necessity for powers asked for. That principle had been pretty well established, so that it was not necessary to again raise the point. But there was one question he would like to touch upon, and that was as to the present exemption of members of this Committee from the necessity of referring to the declaration provided in Standing Order 117 as to the absence of personal interest or interest on the part of their constituencies in the matters with which the Committee had to deal. He was not making Copy presented, of Annual Statistical the observation in the slightest degree in Report by the University Court of the University of Aberdeen for 1902-3 a personal sense, but he could not see why the members of this Committee [by Act]; to lie upon the Table, and should not be subject to the conditions to be printed. [No. 70.] which attached to membership of other Committees, and he certainly should as at present advised raise the matter in the next Parliament. *MR. SPEAKER: Order! order! It is a quarter past Two. The debate stands adjourned until to-morrow. And, it being a quarter past Two of the clock, the debate stood adjourned. Debate to be resumed to-morrow. PETITIONS. LICENCE HOLDERS. Petition for redress of grievances Whitby; and Bollington and Butley; to lie upon the Table. LICENCES (RENEWAL). UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. FOREIGN BOUNTIES (COMMERCIAL, No. 2, 1904). Copy presented, of Reports by His Majesty's Representatives Abroad on Bounties other than those on Shipping and Navigation paid by the State in the countries in which they reside [by Command]; to lie upon the Table. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CIR- Poisoning Fatalities at Portsmouth MR. REMNANT (Finsbury, Holborn): To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been directed to the recent deaths, by poisoning, of four inmates of the Portsmouth Lunatic Asylum, and to the evidence given at the inquiry by the coroner, disclosing want of care in the Petitions against alteration of Law: dispensing arrangements in that public from Bradford; Northumberland; Man- institution; and whether, in view of the chester; Kirkcaldy (two); Rochdale; danger to life involved in leaving the Liskeard (two); Billshill; Port Mul- important duty of compounding medigrave; Market Drayton; Melbury; cines to unqualified persons, steps will Castleton; Leigh; Bannockburn; Sand- be taken by the Department to ensure gate; Chester; Bedford; Ilford; Houns- that every dispensary under the control low; Ratcliffe; Ongar; Waterford; of a local authority shall be in the charge Bromley by Bow; Liverpool; Finedon of a person holding the qualification (two); Kincardine; Berwick; North under the Pharmacy Acts. Salford; Penmoch; Llwynfriod; Swel son; Llwynygroes; Longsight; Weston (Answered by Mr. Secretary Akerssuper-Mare ; Salford; Newcastle-on- Douglas.) The inquest in this case is Tyne; North Hants; Handsworth; not yet concluded; but my hon. friend may be assured that the point to which he draws attention will be carefully considered. Water Supply to Schools in Crofting Counties. MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty): To ask the Secretary for Scotland if he will state how many public schools in each of the crofting counties have no water supply laid on to the premises. (Answered by Mr. A. Graham Murray.) My only information in regard to the subject of the hon. Member's Question is based upon the observations made by the inspectors of the Education Department in the course of their visits to schools. The matter, however, is primarily one for the sanitary authority, and no exact statistics can be compiled from the inspectors' reports. Many of the schools in these districts appear not to have a supply of water laid on by pipes; but it does not follow that other methods of supply more suitable to the local circumstances may not be satisfactory. Wherever they have reason to think that it is deficient, the inspectors call attention to the fact and urge improvement. MR. WEIR: To ask the Secretary for Scotland if he will state how many public schools have been closed in each of the crofting counties during the past year on account of an outbreak of infectious disease, the name of each such school, the period during which it was closed, and the nature of the disease. (Answered by Mr. A. Graham Murray.) I am sending the hon. Member a list giving the information asked for in his Question. The list is too voluminous to form part of a printed answer to a Question. New Inclosure in Hyde Park. MR. COGHILL (Stoke-upon-Trent): To ask the hon. Member for Chorley, as representing the First Commissioner of Works, if he will state by whose authority a new inclosure has been formed in the centre of Hyde Park, on the north side of the Serpentine; to what purposes will it be devoted; what is the extent of the public; and whether the inclosure is to be of a temporary or of a permanent character. (Answered by Lord Balcarres.) The new inclosure in Hyde Park, to which my hon. friend refers, is being formed by the Office of Works, and will contain plant-houses and forcing-frames for the plants required for the service of the Royal parks, in place of those now in use, which stand in Kensington Gardens and spoil the architectural effect of the Palace and of Wren's Orangery. Some of the existing houses are in bad condition, and it is essential that they should be renewed. There has always been a service-yard in Hyde Park, and the same spot was considered to be a far more suitable and central position for planthouses for the parks. It is therefore determined to remove the plant and frame ground altogether to Hyde Park by an enlargement of the existing serviceyard. The work is specially provided for in the Vote for Royal Parks, the first instalment of the cost having been passed in May last. The area now occupied by the houses and frames in Kensington Gardens will, when vacated, be laid out as an ornamental garden. Substantially the public will gain three acres of lawn and flower-beds in exchange for about an equal area of grass-land taken into the new frame-ground. When the works are all finished and the plantations grown there will be also a gain in picturesque effect, both in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Postal Deliveries in County Tyrone. MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.): To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that, in a district of country from three quarters of a mile to three miles around Fivemiletown, Fivemiletown, county Tyrone, there is only a tri-weekly delivery of letters and parcels, the postman passing daily within a few perches of part of the district; and if he will endeavour to have this grievance remedied. (Answered by Lord Stanley.) It is the fact that in a part of the district served from Fivemiletown a delivery is afforded on three days a week only. I have |