§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)asked the President of the Board 856 of Trade, in reference to the statement on page 18 of the Papers relating to Emigration (1887), wherein it is stated that the amount of money remitted by settlers in the United States and Canada to their Friends in the United Kingdom in each year from 1848 to 1887 amounted to £34,040,564, and from Australia from 1875 to 1887 amounted to £772,909, Does this amount include small postal and money orders; and, if so, is he aware that the poor and middle class people in Australia sent to their friends and relatives in this country during the past two years no less a sum than £700,000 in money orders, in value from 10s. to £10; and, how he reconciles the statement in the Return with the last-earned fact?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)The amount of money stated in the Return as remitted by settlers abroad or in the Colonies to their friends in the United Kingdom does not include sums remitted by small postal and money orders. The Post Office, on being applied to by the Board of Trade for the information for the year 1887, stated that they were unable to furnish it. In 1881 and 1882 Mr. Giffen stated, in his Report to the Board of Trade upon Emigration Statistics, that the data with regard to these remittances were necessarily so incomplete that it was doubtful whether it was ever worth while to publish the figures, or whether it was worth while any longer to continue them. I am obliged to the hon. Member for calling my attention to the matter. I think inaccurate statistics are only misleading, and propose to cease the publication of Tables VII. and VII.A in this Return, unless some good reason to the contrary can be shown.