§ MR. G. C. T. BARTLEY (Islington, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been drawn to the Supplement of the 50th Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy (No. 304 I.), which contains 11 elaborate plans, about three feet by two feet each, in great detail, of five lunatic asylums now being erected; by what authority it was printed; and whether he could state the cost of producing this volume with these expensive plans?
§ MR. HANBURYThe printing of Returns is by a fiction supposed to rest with the House, but such discretion as is employed is, in fact, usually exercised by the Librarian. The discretion of the the Librarian is, however, itself limited by the fact that annual reports, such as that of the Lunacy Commissioners, are frequently laid on the Table in dummy. His discretion has taken the place of that of the Printing Committee of the House, which, however, never expressed any opinion during the last 20 years of its existence. In this instance the Librarian advised the printing of the original Report of the Lunacy Commissioners because it was the annual custom to do so, and the order to print the ordinary Report was supposed to include this special and additional Report. The Stationery Office can control the amount of illustration in Command Papers, but 295 has no authority over those printed by Order of the House. 750 copies of the Supplement were printed, of which, 200 were sent to the Vote Office for delivery to Members. A further 350 were subsequently printed for the use of the Lunacy Commissioners. Though the selling price is stated on the cover to be 5s. 7½d., I am informed by the Stationery Office that the total cost was only £59 Os. 9d., which I do not understand, if copies are sold at about cost price. That a good deal is printed as a matter of routine, which is of little use to anybody, appears very probable, but that is a matter for the House, and not the Treasury, to deal with.
§ MR. BARTLEYI wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether some steps will be taken to prevent this waste of public money in the future?