HC Deb 24 June 1880 vol 253 c708
MR. R. H. PAGET

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether, seeing that the information afforded by the Report of the Secretary of Legation at Washington includes various matters besides those connected with agriculture, and that it ranges over a period from 9th February to 3rd May 1880, he will take steps to secure in future the early and separate presentation to Parliament of information respecting agriculture as soon as received; whether he will endeavour to obtain from time to time from the Bureau of Agriculture at Washington, and place in the Library of this House, any Reports which may be issued by that department; and, further, if (to make such Reports of practical value) he will procure them as soon as possible after publication, and give such notice of their receipt as will make them readily available for consultation?

SIR CHARLES W. DILKE

The time which elapsed in the publication of the Reports was owing partly to their containing a large quantity of statistical tables, and partly to a wish expressed by Mr. Drummond, the Secretary of Legation, to see and revise the text before they were published. Steps will be taken to insure as speedy publication as possible in future. I have also arranged that copies of the Reports of the Bureau of Agriculture at Washington shall be obtained and placed in the Library of the House immediately on their publication; but I do not exactly see what notice could be given of their having been placed there.

MR. R.H. PAGET

said, that as he could not obtain the information he required, he would, on going into Supply, move— That, in view of the increasing competition to which the farmers of the United Kingdom are exposed, it is the duty of the State to afford them early information with regard to probable agricultural imports: and that, in the opinion of this House, it is necessary that a Department of Agriculture should be forthwith formed at the Board of Trade; that such department should be charged with the special duty of obtaining agricultural statistics and reports from Foreign Countries, as well as from our Indian and Colonial Dependencies; and that such information should be regularly published from time to time, with the least possible delay.