MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he can explain how the sum of £11,464,569, which is stated on page 47 of the Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, 1883 to 1897 (under the head of receipts for the purposes of local expenditure in the United Kingdom for the year 1895–6) 1145 to be Government contributions for that year, was arrived at; whether he will state in detail the items of which that sum is composed; and whether he will give the reference to the sources of information whence his Department extracted the items in question?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADEAs in previous years, the total is mainly based on the Local Taxation Returns for England, Scotland and Ireland. A list of the items and the sources from whence they are extracted would be too lengthy to read to the House, but they are at the disposal of the honourable Member if he asks to see them.