§ MR. STEADMANI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if application has been made by the National Association for the Extension of Workmen's Trains that all inquiries which have been asked for by them and other bodies and granted by the Board of Trade shall be held in the evening, and as far as possible in the local district concerned, so as to enable the working men and women who suffer hardships owing to the want of cheap workmen's trains to attend and give evidence; what reply (if any) have the Board made to his request?
THE PRESIDENT OP THE BOARD OP TRADEYes, sir, the Board of Trade have always made it their practice to favourably consider applications of this description, and an inquiry, which is to take place at Barking on the 15th, will 511 be held at 7 p.m. In several recent cases the inspecting officer has consulted the wishes of the applicants and held inquiries at times convenient to them. The workmen interested in those cases were, however, postmen and printers, and the evening was not so convenient as the afternoon. The Railway Commissioners are the judges of their own procedure, and applications in regard to their hearings should be made to them.