MR. KEIR-HARDIE (West Ham, S.)In the absence of the lion. Member for Middlesbrough, I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he can state the total number of vessels that have sailed from the United Kingdom under "The Merchant Shipping (Inspection of Provisions) Act, 1892"; how many of such vessels' provisions have been inspected; the number of ships' provisions that satisfied the requirements of the Inspectors; and the number of ships whose provisions were rejected during that period?
§ MR. BRYCEDuring the first year of the working of the Act to which my hon. Friend refers—namely, from the 10th of July, 1893, to the 9th of July, 1894—the total number of vessels that sailed from the United Kingdom under the Act was 2,491. Provisions were inspected for or on board of 2,395 vessels. Provisions were passed by the Inspectors for or on board of 1,477 vessels, and rejections occurred for or on board of 918 vessels. It is right to add that the rejection of even one package for or on board a ship is counted as a rejection. A total of 780,814 packages were inspected, and of these 8,642 packages were rejected, a proportion of a little over 1 per cent.