§ GENERAL SIR GEORGE BALFOURasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, If he can give an explanation regarding the large increase in, and the varying amounts of, the incidental charges in the dockyards?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVRESir, the attention of the Board of Admiralty has been directed to the very able Report of the Accountant General in the preface to the Expense Accounts of 1878–9. It shows that, during the last few years, 1279 there has been a very serious increase in the incidental charges at the dockyards—namely, those items of dockyard expenditure which cannot be charged direct against ships and other services. Comparing the year 1878 with the year 1872, the increase amounts to nearly £400,000, or 54 per cent. This increase is more especially the case at some of the yards. At Portsmouth the increase has been 63 per cent, at Devonport 67 per cent; while at Sheerness it has been 32 per cent, and at Pembroke 41 per cent. The increase is so serious that the Admiralty has thought it right to appoint a Departmental Committee to inquire into its causes.