§ MR. DODDSsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the further evidence taken before the Royal Commission appointed in 1865 for inquiring into the Pollution of Rivers will be laid before the House during the present Session; if so, whether with or without any further Report; and when it is probable that the Commission will complete its labours?
§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSENreplied that the Rivers Pollution Commission of 1865, having made three Reports, was dissolved in February 1868, and a new Commission appointed in the following April. That Commission would probably complete its first Report very shortly, but scarcely in time to be in the hands of Members during the present Session. This Report would be on the Mersey and Ribble basin, as a cotton manufacturing district, and on the Aire and Calder basin as a woollen manufacturing district. The Commissioners had still much work of an important character to proceed with, and it was not possible at that moment to fix any precise period at which it was probable that their labours would be terminated.