HC Deb 17 May 1892 vol 4 cc1129-30
MR. CAUSTON (Southwark, W.)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that certain Local Authorities throughout the country have, for a considerable time, been issuing notices to dealers and vendors in petroleum (grocers, &c), warning them that, under the Act of 1871, petroleum cannot be "kept otherwise than for private use, or for sale in certain small quantities," unless the dealer has obtained the necessary licence; and if he will explain what justification there is for such procedure, seeing that the Act of 1871 distinctly defines the petroleum to which it refers as that which, when tested in the prescribed manner, gives off an inflammable vapour below 73 degrees Fahr., and, therefore, does not apply to mineral lamp oils used for domestic purposes, which do not flash below the temperature specified?

MR. MATTHEWS

No, Sir, I have no information as to the issue of such notices as the hon. Member mentions. If they have been issued they do not appear to be justified, in so far as they extend to petroleum to which the Acts do not apply. I may point out to the hon. Member that the Act of 1871, which he quotes, prescribed 100 degrees as the limit to which its provisions apply, and that it was by the Amending Act of 1879 that the present test and the limit of 73 degrees were established.