§ CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork, E.)I beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, if he can say why the printing of maps six inches to the mile is being carried out at Southampton instead of Dublin, in view of the fact that the work is purely Irish; whether printers were discharged in 1905 from the Ordnance Survey, Dublin, and, if so, how many; if he can state the number of employees under notice of discharge at the Dublin Survey Office; and whether it is intended to abolish the Irish Survey as a productive department, and thereby transfer all the work of production to Southampton.
§ SIR EDWARD STRACHEY (Somersetshire, S.)As a temporary measure some of the six-inch maps of Ireland are being printed at Southampton, as the printing staff in Ireland is at present fully occupied with urgent work for the Land Judge's. Court. One printer was discharged in 1905 owing to the increased output of the motor driven presses, which were introduced in that year. Two young men are under notice of discharge as there is no opportunity for their further advancement and it is not in their own interest to keep them on at boys' duties. There is no intention of transferring all the producing work to Southampton. I may add that the proportion of the total cost 1347 of the Survey which is expended in Ireland has risen from 33 per cent, to 43 per cent, in the last five years.
§ CAPTAIN DONELANIf the printing staff in Dublin is fully occupied how is it there have been recent discharges from that Department?
§ SIR EDWARD STRACHEYasked for notice.