§ MR. YOUNG (Cavan, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieu-tenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the report published in The Irish News of the 22nd instant, of the proceedings at an inquest on the body of a child supposed to have been murdered, from which it appears that the city coroner expressed his regret that a greater number of deaths of children occurred hi Belfast than in any other town of the same size in the United Kingdom; and if he will make inquiry, in order to ascertain the cause of this high death rate among children in Belfast?
§ MR. ASQUITH (for Mr. J. MORLEY)I am informed that the remarks of the coroner bad reference to the ordinary death rate among children in Belfast. It would take some time to obtain statistics in order to make the comparison referred to, though I believe the infantile mortality rate in Belfast is considerably higher than in some other places in Ireland. The high death rate among children in Belfast is attributed by the Medical Officer of Health to bad sanitation, the prevalence of zymotic diseases, and oilier causes which are to be found among a working-class population.