HC Deb 03 May 1897 vol 48 cc1410-1
MR. REGINALD McKENNA (Monmouth, N.)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the folding of newspapers is, like the bottling of beer, such a process as to constitute any premises in which the same is carried on a factory or workshop within the meaning of the Factory and Workshops Acts 1878 to 1895?

* THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, Blackpool

The Question in both cases turns, I think, on whether the process has for its main object the adaptation of the article for sale or its more convenient conveyance. The bottling of beer has been considered to have as its object the first of these alternatives; the folding of newspapers the second. The place, consequently, where the latter occupation is carried on is not held to be within the Acts. The point is by no moans clear, but I do not see my way to altering the policy of my predecessors.