COLONEL SYKESsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether he will compare the Returns from the Metropolitan Board of Works, Numbers 17 of the present and 123 of the last Session, and call upon the Board to explain the apparent discrepancies between the two Returns in respect to the total sum borrowed, the debt outstanding, the rates collected, and the total amount expended upon works; and whether he will lay such explanations upon the table of the House?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH, in reply, said, he did not think the Returns would on comparison be found contradictory. They were quite compatible, the one being made up to the 31st of December and the other to the 31st of March; one of the Returns referred only to the transactions under the Main Drainage Acts, the other to the whole of the transactions of the Metropolitan Board of Works, but if the hon. and gallant Member wished for information in a different form he would be happy to confer with him privately on the subject.