MR. J. G.TALBOTasked the Vice President of the Committee of Council Whether he will give instructions that in future the Education Code shall be not only laid upon the Table, but shall be in the hands of Members within one month after the meeting of Parliament, so that the period during which it is required to lie upon the Table may not be curtailed, as it is this year by a week's delay, and also by the interposition of the Easter holidays?
§ MR. MUNDELLAsaid, it was impossible for him to give any such undertaking.
§ MR. J. G. TALBOTasked whether the right hon. Gentleman was aware that the Code was laid on the Table on March 17, and was not distributed until the 25th?
§ MR. MUNDELLAsaid, he was not responsible for the printing. The Code was in type when it was laid on the Table, and the right hon. Gentleman had had the opportunity of availing himself of it and of seeing it in the Library. It would be simply impossible for him to guarantee that Papers should be printed and ready to distribute before they were laid on the Table?
§ MR. W. H. SMITHasked whether it would not be possible to have the Code printed and then laid on the Table.
§ MR. MUNDELLAsaid, he was surprised at the right hon. Gentleman; he must know that an Order of the House was required for printing Papers. As he had said, the Code was in type when it was laid, and this was the first time 672 a Code had been laid on the Table before it was introduced.
§ MR. W. H. SMITHsaid, it was perfectly within the power of the right hon. Gentleman to arrange with the printers that the Papers should be ready for distribution.