§ MR. HENDERSONasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether the accounts of the various manufacturing establishments at Her Majesty's Dockyards are so kept as to show the actual cost of the various articles manufactured there; and, if so, if there will be any objection to grant a Return showing the actual cost of such articles, the quantity manufactured during the last year, and the stock on hand when last taken?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANSir, the accounts of the manufacturing establishments at Her Majesty's Dockyards are so kept as to show the cost of manufacture so far as concerns material, labour, and other general expenditure; but they do not include the salaries of the establishment or the cost of plant and machinery. It would be difficult to prepare a general Return, such as my hon. Friend asks for, because the cost of the larger portion of the work turned out of the Dockyard workshops is excluded from these accounts, being charged directly in the shipbuilding accounts to the ship to which it applied. 81 The accounts annually laid before Parliament show the quantities of the principal articles made for store, and their cost, exclusive of establishment charges. To give a Return of the stock in hand of each article would be a work of considerable labour, as the record is not kept in a sufficiently tabulated form for publication.