§ SIR GEORGE PECHELLsaid, he wished to ask the right hon. President of the Board of Trade when he intended to introduce a measure for amending the present system of ascertaining the average prices of British corn?
MR. CARD WELLsaid, he could not, he thought, be mistaken in supposing that this question originated or was connected with the recommendation which had been received by the Government from some farmers in the neighbourhood of Brighton, who complained that the corn averages did not give a fair result of the supply of corn, and that the corn rentcharges and tithe averages were in that way prejudicially affected. They proposed that the averages should he taken from returns made by the seller and buyer conjointly, and that, after the first sale from the grower, no sale should enter into the average. The House was aware that, under the present system, the buyer only was responsible for the returns. The whole subject of agricultural statistics, and these among the rest, was under serious consideration; but he was not prepared to commit himself to impose a penalty upon every farmer who did not return every sale of corn accurately to the Government, because he was sure that a measure of that kind was one which he should not have much prospect of carrying.