§ MR. BARBOUR (Paisley)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, If it is true, as stated in The Standard of Friday last, that when a vessel is laid down in any of the Dockyards, it has been decided to obtain from the chief of the steam branch of such Dockyard an estimate for the engines, to consider such estimate in connection with the tenders from private firms, and, should the comparison be favourable to the official estimate, that the engines will then be constructed in the Dockyard; and, what security the House will have that the engines will be actually constructed and supplied within the terms of the estimates so submitted to the Admiralty?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)The statement is only true so far as it refers to the machinery of two gunboats of the Rattler class about to be built at Devon-port. The officers of the engineering staff of the Admiralty and Dockyards will be responsible that the engines are constructed and supplied within the terms of the estimates.