§ MR. TULLYTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state, with regard to the petroleum test in New York, what are the facts as to the test employed in New York State and New York City respectively.
1623 (Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers Douglas.) I will answer this Question at some length, because in my answer of the 9th instant I made a statement with regard to the petroleum test in New York which was not sufficiently explicit, and which was also, I find on further inquiry, in some degree erroneous. My statement that the test was an open fire test should have been limited to the State of Pennsylvania, as regards which it is quite correct. In New York State, on the other hand, I find that a close flash test of 100 by the Elliott Cup test (equivalent to rather less than 100 by the Abel test), has been prescribed by law, but, according to evidence given before the Select Committee in 1896, no machinery had been provided for enforcing it; and, so far as I am aware, the same conditions exist at the present time. As regards New York City the same test is prescribed, and I understand that effective means are taken to enforce it.