§ SIR HENRY TYLER (Great Yarmouth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in the Bill to be introduced "to amend and consolidate the laws relating to the public health in the Metropolis," it is proposed to deal with the question of smoke and fogs, from which the Metropolis has recently suffered so much; and whether he will consider the desirability of instituting an inquiry on this important subject by a Committee of the House, or otherwise?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS, (Birmingham, E.)My right hon. Friend the President of the Local Government Board will very soon circulate a Bill to amend and consolidate the law as to public health in the Metropolis, and my hon. Friend will, I hope, be content to 1233 await the publication of this Bill for an answer to his first question. A Committee of the House of Lords sat in 1887 to investigate the subject of smoke in the Metropolis, and I do not think any new light will be thrown on the subject by another inquiry of this nature.
§ LORD E. HAMILTON (Tyrone, N.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he has seen the letter of Messrs. Elliot and Co., in the Times of yesterday, giving the simple explanation of the presence of the black smoke which he stated on Tuesday last was frequently seen issuing from their engine on the Thames Embankment; and whether, in the face of that explanation, and in face of the atmospheric conditions by which we have been surrounded for the past few days, the Government have still no intention of investigating the merits of an invention which promises to render perfectly simple the process of entirely freeing London from all smoke?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. W. H. SMITH, Strand, Westminster)The investigation of the merits of this invention seems to be a matter for a specialist; but, so far as the Metropolitan Police are competent to do so, the scheme will be inquired into and a Report made to the Secretary of State.