§ MR. STEPHENS (Middlesex, Hornsey)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the heads of a Bill, upon which presumably the "Inflammable Liquids Bill" is founded, formed the subject of a series of conferences between an official of the Home Office and a representative committee of the petroleum trade, and that such committee came to the unanimous conclusion that the requirements of the Home Office were unnecessary in the interests of public safety, and of so stringent a character that they could not be carried out without imperilling the existence of the trade in an illuminant largely used by the poorer classes; whether he is aware that, with a very few exceptions, the fires ascribed to petroleum have occurred with petroleum spirit, the storage, transport, and sale of which are already under ample legislative control; and whether he will undertake to afford a sufficient interval, after the Bill is printed, before taking the Second Reading?
§ MR. MATTHEWSYes, Sir; a series of conferences have taken place, but it is not the case that the committee of the trade came to the "unanimous conclusion" indicated in the question. On the contrary, several members of the committee expressed approval more or less decided of the principle of the Bill, and criticism was directed rather to certain matters of detail. As a matter of fact, some serious fires have occurred with petroleum, other than petroleum spirit, and strong representations have been made to me by various Public Bodies on the subject of the grave public risk which the present absence of regulation of petroleum oil entails. Moreover, I cannot allow that the existing law as to petroleum spirit is at all satisfactory. The Bill is already in print, and I will take care that a sufficient interval shall elapse before the Second Reading. It is a Bill that the House will probably refer to a Select Committee.