§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the Petition of Arthur Brownlow, of Sungoo Tea Estate, Chittagong, to the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, complaining of the granting of an out-still licence for a shop at Sadhanpur, which immediately adjoins his tea estate, and whereby the injury caused to him and the coolies employed by him on his two tea estates was very great, inasmuch as the liquor shop quite demoralised the coolies and servants employed, while drunkenness and absence from duty of the coolies became the order of the day, 642 and the Native doctor of the Sungoo Tea Estate had to be dismissed for inebriety?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Sir J. GORST, Chatham)Yes; the Secretary of State understands that such a Petition has been addressed to the Government of Bengal, and is now under the consideration of that Government.