§ SIR JOHN HAYasked the President of the Board of Trade, If he will be good enough to supply some further information in detail of the extraordinary loss of life (shown in Parliamentary Paper, No. 143) of 3,006 of the crews of British 1872 ships during 1881, 1882; and, whether he can say that the rate is increasing or diminishing in 1883?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAIN, in reply, said, the Parliamentary Paper, to which the right hon. and gallant Member had alluded, was itself merely a summary Return annually presented to Parliament, and which contained details of the shipwrecks and loss of life each year. The Return for 1882 was issued about a month since, and that Return would give all the detailed information the right hon. and gallant Gentleman wanted. The information for the present year was necessarily imperfect; and he did not feel in a position to say whether the loss of life would be as great in proportion as during the last few years.