§ MR. DAVID MACIVER (Liverpool, Kirkdale)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, having regard to the experimental character of the Unemployed Workmen Bill, and with a view to lessening the probabilities of objections being raised to its further progress, he will agree to introduce words which would limit its operation to a 347 period of three years in order that, at the end of that time, the whole subject may be reconsidered; and whether he will agree to the insertion of words intended to secure that no additional burden shall be put upon the rates, and that all expenditure under the Bill shall be recouped from the National Exchequer out of a special grant in aid of local taxation, to be derived, as is already the case in the Channel Islands, from a landing charge of one penny per hundredweight levied upon all importations which compete with our industries, and upon importations generally other than raw materials.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. GERALD BALFOUR, Leeds, Central)As regards the first part of the Question, I think that three years would be too short a period for the duration of the Bill; but I have given notice of an Amendment which would limit its operation to ten years. As regards the second part of the Question, the reply must be in the negative.