§ MR. DUFFasked the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works, If the attention of the Metropolitan Board of Works has been called to the fact that, during the last month, twenty-one tons of fish have been seized by the officers appointed by the Fishmongers' Company as being unfit for human food; that seventeen tons of that amount were land-borne fish; that Mr. Spencer Walpole, in the Report to the Home Secretary in 1880, attributed much of the loss in fresh fish to the distance it had to be carried from the Railways to Billingsgate; and, whether, under these circumstances, he can state to the House what steps, if any, are being taken by the Metropolitan Board of Works to furnish the public with a suitable fish market, so imperatively demanded, near the termini of the Railways on the north side of London?
§ SIR JAMES M'GAREL-HOGGIn reply to the hon. Member, I beg to say that my attention has frequently been called to the seizure of fish at Billingsgate, and I am cognizant of the Report to which he refers. The Metropolitan Board of Works had the whole question before them last autumn; but the time at their disposal was not sufficient, in the opinion of the majority, to enable them to decide upon a site for a market before the period fixed for the deposit of Parliamentary Bills, and they are not, therefore, taking any steps in the present Session; but the matter is still receiving consideration.