§ SIR FREDERICK MAPPIN (York, W.R., Hallamshire)asked the Surveyor General of the Ordnance. Whether the present contract for cartridges is the first Messrs. Kynoch and Company, of Birmingham, have entered into with the British Government; if not, whether the rejections have exceeded 20 per cent, or what has been the percentage; whether Messrs. Kynoch and Company have previously supplied the British Government with any other articles or materials other than cartridges; and, whether the rejections in any case have exceeded 20 per cent of the contract?
§ THE SURVEYOR GENERAL (Mr. NORTHCOTE) (Exeter)There have been three previous contracts with the firm, all for solid-drawn cartridge cases, to a total of 1,700,000. Of the first of these contracts for 500,000 cartridges, 40 per cent were rejected as not according to pattern, and of the two others 8 l.3 per cent were rejected for failure at proof; and a largo number were withdrawn by the contractors after being sent in as of the same sort as those which had failed at proof. No articles other than cartridges have been contracted for with the firm.