§ MR. M'LAGANasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he intends to introduce this Session any measure for ascertaining the causes and preventing the frequency of Fires, in terms of the Report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the existing legislative provisions for the protection of Life and Property against Fires in the United Kingdom?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, it was not the intention of the Government to introduce such a measure this Session. If any officers were appointed to ascertain the causes and pre vent the frequency of Fires, they must necessarily be paid out of the rates, and it was not the intention of Her Majesty's Government to propose an addition to the rates for that purpose. The whole question was so much mixed up with the appointment of a Public Prosecutor that until the Judicature Commission had reported on that point, this, and other similar questions, could not be considered by the Government.