§ MR. MAHONY (Meath, N.)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether, in some of the largest markets in Scotland, notably Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, the practice of selling fat cattle by live weight has been largely adopted; whether the quotation of prices, thus tested by actual weight, are invariably lower in the same markets than those arrived at by the ordinary method of guess work, and published as the market quotations of the day; whether the practice of selling by live weight has also been adopted by some salemasters in Liverpool and Dublin; whether he will take steps to ascertain the weekly prices in these five markets, which are thus based on actual facts, and cause them to be printed and circulated among Members quarterly; and, whether he will add, from time to time, to the Return the prices in other large markets, where the practice of selling by live weight may be adopted?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)The information received by the Board of Trade does not enable me to answer the Question as to the practice in the markets in the places named in the affirmative, though I am aware of cattle being weighed at Edinburgh, and of a few cattle being weighed at Liverpool, so that in these cases the information as to the price realized for live weight could be given, though the sale was not actually by weight. I will have inquiry made of a number of salemasters at the places named; or if any of them would be willing to make Returns to the Board of Trade of the weight of cattle sold by them and the prices realized, so that the price per live weight could be stated, and if the results obtained are sufficiently satisfactory the information could be circulated quarterly, as suggested by the hon. Member.