§ SUPPLY—considered in Committee.
§ (In the Committee)
§ (Navy Supplementary Estimate.)
§ (1.) £30,000, Supplementary sum, Vote No. 1, Wages to Seamen, &c.
§ MR. GOSCHENsaid, that this amount was required to carry out improved arrangements for the payment of seamen, and was not wanted in consequence of any miscalculation of the Estimates. At present two months' pay was kept back in the case of seamen abroad, and one month's pay from seamen at home. The Government proposed to make a closer settlement of such accounts. The item of £70,000 was for work done in the 1727 extension of works at Portsmouth. In former years the contractors had been unable to perform so much work as money was voted for; but latterly they had done more work than was provided for in the Estimates. But, on the balance, the money paid to them was less than the sum formerly voted.
§ MR. ALDERMAN LUSK, in expressing disapproval of the practice of keeping money from seamen for so long a period, said, they ought to be paid when they had earned their wages.
§ MR. GOSCHENsaid, the Government agreed with the hon. Member, and had therefore made a new arrangement, by which, for the future, it would be avoided.
§ Vote agreed to.
§ (2.) £70,000, Supplementary sum, Vote No. 11, New Works, &c. (New Works, &c., Portsmouth).
§ (3.) £2,000, Supplementary sum, Vote No. 14, Miscellaneous Services (Grant to Captain Scott, R.N.)
§ In reply to Mr. BOWRING,
§ MR. GOSCHENsaid, £2,000 had been awarded to Captain Scott for his inventions; but as he was dissatisfied with the amount, he asked that his expenses should be paid. This Vote was, therefore, in addition to the award.
§ Vote agreed to.
§ House resumed.
§ Resolutions to be reported on Monday next; Committee to sit again upon Monday next.