§ MR. PINKERTON (Galway)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is prepared to submit to the House a tabular statement of the number of fires which have occurred during the last year traceable to the storage of petroleum lamp oil; also the number of fires which have been traced to petroleum spirit, already safeguarded by stringent legislative control; and fires arising through defective lamps, or through accidents to lamps; and if he is in a position to state how much additional cost per gallon this proposed enactment will entail upon the poorer classes, who are the principal consumers of petroleum lamp oil?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have not the materials to supply a full and complete tabular statement of the number of fires due to petroleum spirit and defective lamps. None of the classes of fires referred to are required to be reported to the Home Office. I am not prepared to admit that the use of petroleum spirit is already sufficiently safeguarded. I am informed by the Chief Inspector of Explosives that there seems no reason to anticipate that the cost of petroleum lamp oil will be sensibly, if at all, increased by the proposed legislation.