§ MR. W. FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture, what steps other than advertising in the official London Gazette are taken to give publicity to the Orders of the Board of Agriculture, and particularly to those recently issued bearing upon The Transit of Animals, No. 5,305; The Water Supply on Railways, No. 5,306; and The Foreign Animals Order of 1895, No. 5,307; and whether he will take steps to secure that all Orders affecting the movement of cattle, sheep, and swine shall be advertised in the organ of the meat and cattle trade as well as in the official publications, that are never seen by live-stock dealers, salesmen, and butchers?
§ *MR. HERBERT GARDNERThe steps taken for the publication otherwise than in The London Gazette of the Orders made by the Board of Agriculture under the Diseases of Animals Act depend upon whether the Order is of a local or of a general character. In the former case the Order is usually sent to the local authority with a request that it may be published in their district. In the latter case, copies of the Order are sent direct to local authorities and railway and shipping companies, and also to those newspapers and private persons interested in such matters who have expresed a desire to receive them. This is the course now being taken in the three cases to which my hon. Friend refers. Judging from our experience in the past I do not think that the expenditure proposed by my hon. Friend is necessary, and in any case the suggestion is one which could not be adopted without regard to the arrangements for the publication of statutory rules generally —a matter which, as my hon. Friend will recollect, was the subject of legislation last year.