REVENUE DEPARTMENTS. (Hansard, 14 February 1902)

*(11.40.) Ma. BRYN ROBERTS
called attention to the fact that the officer of Inland Revenue who was formerly in the habit of visiting the village of Garn Dolbenmaen for the purpose of issuing dog licenses had lately discontinued his visits, thereby causing inconvenience to people in the district. When the officer visited. the village he found accommodation at a public-house, hut a complaint was made of the practice on the ground that farmers' sons and cottagers who were sent to take out dog licences had to stay in the public-house waiting their turn. They were thus led to start drinking, and sometimes they spent the rest of the day in the public-house. When he asked a question on this subject some time ago he was in-formed that it was impossible for the officer to find accommodation elsewhere. He was told, however, that was not the case, and that there was a private house where a room would be granted for the accommodation of the officer. The officer, it appeared, had dis- 130 continued his visits to the place as a punishment on the villagers, or those who were interested in the cause of temperance, He, the hon. Member, was asked to put the Question in the House, and apparently be hailed the because it was dared to question the conduct of the gentleman, he refrained from going to the village at all to issue licences. The people were now compelled to travel four or five miles to the Head Office in order to obtain their licences. He asked the right hon. Gentleman to look into the matter, and try to do something to remove the inconvenience which seemed to be the result of pique or vindictive feeling.

§ SIR M. HICKS BEACH
I recollect the question to which the hon. Member refers. I certainly thought from the information I received at the time that a private house could not be secured, but if the hon. Member will furnish me with the name of the place, careful inquiry will be made into the circumstances, because it is of as much interest to me as to anybody else, that facilities should be given for the issue of licences.

§ MR. HALDANE
referred to the item of £4,000 for temporary pressure of business in the Estate Duty Office. He supposed this was occasioned by the arrangements required for dealing with the arrears. This subject had been inquired into by a Departmental Committee over which he had presided and he would be glad to know what progress had been made with the re-organisation. He was aware that the delay in dealing with the matter arose from the want of buildings, but the Committee pointed out that it was not necessary to wait for a commencement of the reform until sufficient buildings had been obtained for the whole of the work.

§ (11.45.) MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN
said that the recommendations of the hon. and learned Member's Committee were in course of being carried out. Some of the changes had already been made, and further changes, which depended upon the provision of additional space, would be carried out as soon as approved of by the Treasury. He hoped that no such accumulation of arrears would occur in the future.

§ MR. C. G. D. HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton)
said he wished to call attention on this Vote to a question which affected a large body in the Telegraph Service. When the first draft of telegraphists were sent to the Front they were regarded as Army Reservists, and attached to the Royal Engineers, and they received the pay of Royal Engineers in addition to their own pay. Last year, when a call was made for another draft of sorting clerks and telegraphists, those who responded went out to South Africa under the impression that they would be dealt with on the same terms as the first draft. They found, however, when they got to the Cape, that they were treated as privates of the Line, and when they demanded the additional money the authorities at home would not admit the claim. The general result was, that these men laboured under a great sense of injustice. He would not labour this point more, because he felt that the unequal treatment of these men must have been a pure inadvertence, and only 132 required to be stated in order to be corrected.

SIR HOWARD VINCENT
said he had received representations on this matter from many of his own constituents, and he would ask the Secretary to the Treasury to represent to the military authorities the great hardships that existed at the present time. Some of the telegraphists went out, joined the Royal Engineers as privates, and had now been in South Africa upwards of two years. They felt that it was time they should be relieved, and he thought they were entitled to the same privileges as the men of the first draft.

§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN
said that the complaint of the hon. Member for Hoxton related not to the terms which the Post Office had made, but to the terms which the War Office had made. The point which had been raised by the hon. and gallant Member for Sheffield was also one rather for the Secretary for War than for the representative of the Post Office. He would communicate on both points with the Secretary for War.