SIR W. WEDDEEBUENI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether up to last March in the Legislative Councils of the Governor General, the Governor of Madras, the Governor of Bombay, land the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, the majority of additional members were non-officials; upon what grounds this majority has been now disturbed in the Council of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal by the appointment of an official to the vacancy caused by the retirement of a non-official; and whether the instructions of the Secretary of State impose upon official members the duty of supporting the Government with their vote on all occasions?
MR. H. H. FOWLEENo, Sir; it is not the case that there has always been a majority of non-officials among 17 the additional members. For instance, in the first quarter of 1892 the numbers of officials and non-officials were equal both in Bombay and in Bengal, and the same equality continued in Bengal during the second quarter. Under the Statute of 1861 only one-third of the Councillors appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal need be non-officials, but the Rules made under the Statute of 1892 direct that the number of officials shall not exceed 10 out of 20, or one-half. When the Bengal Couucil was enlarged the Lieutenant Governor found it convenient for special reasons to have only nine official Councillors with 11 non-officials, but it was always intended that the number of each class should be equalised at the first opportunity, and this has now been effected. No such instructions as are described in the third clause of my hon. Friend's question have been given by the Secretary of State.