§ MR. HOWELLI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the following paragraph in the 51st Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, on page 10, namely:—
It is wasteful to present Members of the two Houses of Parliament with printed copies of lists which are intended for the use of Departments of State, and of lawyers and students of history;and whether he will tell the House by whose authority the paragraph was inserted in the Report, and also who is to be the judge whether Members of the two Houses of Parliament are to have copies of Papers issued at the public expense?
§ MR. W. H. SMITHThe arrangement and contents of the Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records are, except so far as they are regulated by Act of Parliament, entirely in his hands. It is considered that it would be more convenient to the public to print the calendars to which the hon. Member refers separately, and, as opportunity occurs, to codify them and print them in larger type. The Act of Parliament 1 & 2 Viet., c. 94, Section 17, under which the Deputy Keeper makes his Reports, does not, I believe, require such lists to be appended to his Reports, and, as suggested in his last Report, the fact that the valuable information contained in these lists is hidden away in Appendices to Reports deprives them of much of their value.