§ MR. COURTHOPEI beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether the provisions of the Hop Trade Act, 1866, as to the marking of hop pockets and the mixing of hops, apply to imported hops, or to home-grown hops only; and, if the latter, whether he will take steps to place home growers on an equality with foreign growers in this respect.
§ SIR EDWARD STRACHEYThe provisions to which the hon. Member refers are not applicable to imported hops. The Select Committee on the hop industry which reported in 1890, expressed the opinion that the interests of English hop-growers would not be served by any alteration of the law in this respect, and although the matter has frequently been under consideration since 1442 that time, the Board have never seen any sufficient reason to dissent from the conclusion at which the Committee arrived.