§ MR. OCTAVIUS V. MORGAN (Battersea)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been directed to a letter in the Morning Post of 5th June, signed J. Lawrence- Hamilton, M.R.C. S., in which it is stated that Billingsgate Fish Market has a river frontage of only 160 feet, where no steamer larger than 130 tons can unload; whether complaints have reached him that the internal structures, stalls, fittings, and pavement of Billingsgate being rough, uneven, porous, and highly absorbent, imbibe, breed, and retain every form of germ, bacteria, or microbe, which are specially active in starting and accelerating the decomposition of any dead fish and shell fish in the market; and, whether it be true that large quantities of fish full of decomposed blood and entrails are commonly sold at Billingsgate?
§ * MR. RITCHIEI have seen a letter in the Morning Post with reference to Billingsgate Market. No complaints have reached me as to the material of the internal construction and the pavement of Billingsgate Fish Market. I have been in communication with the Corporation of London on the subject, and I am informed that paving the market with glazed tiles or marble, as has been suggested, is wholly impracticable, as neither would stand the extremely heavy and rough wear from the large iron-bound boxes thrown about on them, and would be dangerous by reason of 306 slipperiness when wet. It is stated that the existing pavement is of the best York stone, that no better material for the purpose is known, and that the greatest possible attention is paid to the cleansing of the market. The Corporation inform me that great pains and care are taken to inspect the fish brought to the market, and to condemn and seize any that is unfit before it be exposed for sale, there being as many as four inspectors for this one market. The large quantities of fish that are occasionally condemned as being unfit for human food are either immature fish or fish that, from some cause or another, have been delayed in coming to the market. The large weight is accounted for by the fact that the fish condemned is very often shell fish.