CLASS VII. (Hansard, 11 August 1896)

§ *SIR C. DILKE

rose to call attention to the enormous amount of money spent on Commissions from which very little good resulted. The delay in the case of the Vaccination Commission had been a public scandal. If Commissions were appointed at all they should be very small bodies. When very large bodies were appointed, an enormous amount of time was occupied in the examination of evidence, a great many unnecessary 502 witnesses were called and an immense amount of time given to the proceedings. There had probably never been a Royal Commission, the delay in which had given so much dissatisfaction as the Vaccination Commission. It was a well known fact that Boards of Guardians took advantage of the appointment of the Commission to suspend all action under the Vaccination Laws, and the result was that in many cases the existing law had become a dead letter. The sitting of the Commission had been the means not only of putting an end to compulsory vaccination, but largely to ordinary vaccination, and much less vaccination had taken place than would have been the case if there had been no Commission sitting. He did not wish to detain the House, but he was bound to protest against this enormous expenditure.