§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if, having regard to the statements laid 902 before the country of the extent of old age pauperism among the industrial classes, and to the circumstance that the Committee on National Provident Insurance, presided over by the hon. Baronet the Member for Wigtownshire, was "practically narrowed into an examination of one particular scheme, that formulated by Canon Blackley," the Government will assent to the early appointment of a Royal Commission or Select Committee to ascertain the facts, and the best means of remedying the evil, and enabling the thrifty to secure State guaranteed pensions in old age upon easy terms, through friendly societies or otherwise?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)In answer to my hon. Friend, I have to say that although it is true that Canon Blackley's scheme of national insurance was the only one examined very minutely by the Committee named in the question, because it appeared to be the only one worked out in sufficient detail to make the examination necessary, the Committee collected a vast amount of information that would have to be taken into account in the consideration of any scheme that might be presented to the public. I do not think it will be expedient to appoint a Select Committee, which would have to traverse the ground already traversed by the Committee which sat two years ago.