HC Deb 06 July 1893 vol 14 cc953-4
MR. HERBERT LEWIS (Flint, &c.)

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether his attention has been directed to that part of the Report of the Departmental Committee on the Ordnance Survey, where it is pointed out that the absence of Welsh-speaking officers from each of the survey parties in Wales has led to incorrectness of form, name, and spelling of Welsh place names, to paucity of names, and to mistakes such as the description of lead works as slate works, and of copper works as manganese works; and whether the Board of Agriculture intend to take any steps to carry out the recommendations of the Departmental Committee that, previous to the revision, arrangements should be made for generally checking the names in the Welsh counties through a local inquiry conducted by persons able to communicate with the people resident in the locality, that the results so obtained should be looked over by competent Welsh scholars, that proofs of maps should always be looked over by a person acquainted with Welsh, and that the names of the persons responsible for the orthography of the Welsh sheets should be placed on the map?

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. H. GARDNER, Essex, Saffron Walden)

I have had under consideration the recommendations made by the Departmental Committee as to the means by which the accurate spelling of the names on the Ordnance Survey maps of Wales may be secured, and we propose to make arrangements for the purpose on the lines indicated by the Committee.