§ MR. WARR (Liverpool, East Toxteth)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been directed to the statement in the annual summary, published by the authority of the Registrar General, that the death rate in Liverpool during 1900 was 25.7, and that in Cardiff 13.8, these places being referred to as having respectively the highest and lowest death rate, and whether he is aware that this statement is contained in a report, dated the 28th March, 1901, although the attention of the Registrar General had previously been called by the Liverpool Corporation to errors in his method of estimating populations; and, seeing that the result of the Census taken three days after the date of the report shows that the Registrar General has made an error of upwards of 30 per cent. in the estimation of the population of the two places, whether he will direct that in making future estimates the Registrar General shall take into consideration information given to him by the Liverpool authorities in 964 order to prevent a recurrence of such mistakes.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. WALTER LONG,) Bristol, S.I am aware of the facts referred to in the first paragraph of the question. I may observe, however, that the Registrar General gave the estimates of population under reservation. He informs me that he is always willing to give consideration to the representations of local authorities with respect to estimates of population, but that he could not undertake to estimate the population for any particular town on the basis prescribed by the local authority concerned.