COLONEL BERESFORDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, How soon any relief will be afforded to the Mat Makers throughout the country, who are in a state of semi-starvation owing to the ruined state of the trade from the concentration of prison labour to a large extent upon their particular trade; if the present state of the Mat Making Department at Pentonville and Millbank is not such that the prison authorities are supplying the masters in the trade with Mats and Matting at a cost hardly more than the cost of the raw material; and, if those prisons are not now overstocked?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, he quite agreed with his hon. and gallant Friend that it was very hard upon the mat-making trade that that particular trade had been singled out in a great number of prisons, and that so many mats should be made as practically to compete with the trade of mat-making as carried on by poor mat-makers at home. It was certainly desirable to ascertain whether some other trade could not be substituted for mat-making, and he should be glad if the Visiting Justices of gaols could see their way to some change in that respect. He was in communication with the Visiting Justices on the subject. With regard to the other part of the Question, he might state that at Millbank very few mats were made this year, because there was a considerable stock on hand at the beginning of the year. At Pentonville and Millbank steps were being taken for employing prisoners in other trades. As 131 to the profits made, the average cost of the raw material was 5d,. and the price received was from 7¼d. to 7¾ d.