HC Deb 26 February 1897 vol 46 cc1304-6

25. £4,500, Supplementary, Temporary Commissions.

*SIR C. DILKE

said that he thought that neither the Agricultural Commission nor the Commission on the Licensing Laws had done much good. With regard to the West India Commission, he thought that its attention should be directed to the question of manufacture rather than to economic questions.

MR. J. CALDWELL (Lanark, Mid)

said he desired to refer to the item for the Scottish University Commission, and to point out that the Commission ought to have expired long ago. It was a piece of absolute jobbery. The Commission was established in 1889, and had gone on ever since. Last year. Vote of £510 was obtained in the expectation that the whole thing would be wound up in a month or two, and now. Supplementary Vote for £620 was brought forward. The Commission had already cost £16,000. The reason why the Vote had been allowed to pass without remark for the last year or two was, that everybody interested expected that it would not be asked for again. He wished the Secretary to the Treasury to understand that the Scotch Members were very emphatic in this matter, and he hoped the right hon. Gentleman would take steps to bring the Commission to an end.

*MR. HANBURY

said the hon. Gentleman was quite right in saying that a large sum was asked for in these Estimates, but it arose in this way. When the Estimates were framed at the beginning of the year it was expected that the work of the Commission would be completed by July 1 of last year. Unfortunately it was found that the Commission would have to sit, at any rate, till July. 1897, owing to the great opposition offered by Lord Bute to the amalgamation of St. Andrew's University and University College, Dundee. It was necessary for the Commission to frame fresh ordinances for these two united bodies; and, meantime, it was absolutely necessary for the Commission to be continued.

Vote agreed to.

26. £16,617, Repayment to the Local Loans Fund.

In reply to Sir C. DILKE,

*MR. HANBURY

said he had to defend this policy when the Bill by which these sums were written off was before the House last year, and he did not think he would be in order to go back to it. These arrears had now been written off by Act of Parliament, and the Government were bound by the Local Loans Fund Act, 1887, to bring in This Vote in order to make good the deficiency.

MR. CALDWELL

was understood to complain that Scotland only got £65 out of this transaction.

Vote agreed to.

27. £20,500, International Exhibitions. Agreed to.