§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether the compulsory deductions of sixpence per month from the wages of Merchant Seamen before 1834 for Greenwich Hospital, were transferred to the credit of the Merchant Seamen's Fund on its establishment after 1834; and, if not so transferred, to statp how the accumulated deductions for years from the Merchant Seamen have been disposed of; and whether for their benefit, and to what extent?
§ MR. CHILDERSIn reply, Sir, to the Question of my hon. and gallant Friend, I have to say that no accumulation of deductions from merchant seamen's wages existed before 1834. Those deductions were annually paid into the income of Greenwich Hospital and expended on the maintenance of in-pensioners and the schools. With reference to the Merchant Seamen's Fund, I must correct a misapprehension of my hon. and gallant Friend. It was established in 1731, not 1834; and in the latter year the sixpence a month formerly paid to Greenwich was, instead, paid to the fund; and by the same Act pensions to widows and children of merchant seamen were granted out of the fund. But it does not appear to have been calculated whether the fund would bear them; and, in fact, it became insolvent 1854 in 1851, and an Act was passed under which the State undertook its liabilities, taking over about £200,000 of assets. These liabilities, up to the present day, have amounted to £997,000, and are now about £48,000 a year; so that merchant seamen will have received from the Exchequer, under the Acts of 1834 and 1851, above £1,000,000 beyond their contributions to the Merchant Seamen's Fund.