§ MR. PLIMSOLLasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether, with reference to the written statement, dated the 2nd day of February 1876, signed Robert Hall, from the Admiralty, Sessional Paper, No. 117, 1876, p. 182, to the effect that "it seems almost unnecessary to remark that no meat is ever sold which is not perfectly fit for food," he would explain to the House why the loss of public money is incurred which is involved in selling large quantities of meat at prices ranging from 18s. to 30s. per tierce, and even lower sometimes, such meat having cost the country from £7 to £7 10s. and £8 per tierce; and, whether he is willing to give the House an assurance that no more meat shall be so sold whilst fit for food for the Navy, and, when it is no longer "perfectly fit for food," that it shall be destroyed, seeing that its sale has caused disease in the Mercantile Marine?
§ MR. HUNT,in reply, said, the statement to which the hon. Member referred was not so precise in its terms as it should have been. It should have been—"that no meat was sold for human food which was not perfectly fit for human food." Meat unfit for human food was occasionally sold to soap boilers and fat boilers for their business. The only assurance he could give was that meat unfit for human food should be declared to be so at the time of sale, and that a record should be kept of the names of the purchasers.