§ MR. VINCENT KENNEDYI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will say what is the usual rate of insurance charged by railway companies, say the London and North Western Railway, the Great Western Railway, and the Great Northern Railway, upon furniture; do these companies require furniture imported from Ireland to be differently packed from the same article offered for carriage in England.
I beg also to ask the President of the Board of Trade, if he will say whether a clearance house rate of £5 10s. per ton, 5s. 6d. per cwt., is charged by railway companies on the carriage of furniture and such commodities booked over their lines in Great Britain and Ireland; is he aware that any fraction over a ton is charged at the rate for one and a-half tons, and that any fraction over the one and a half tons is charged for at the rate of two tons; and will he say whether, seeing that this system has the effect of raising this particular freightage charge, he will make representations to the railway companies with a view to securing more equitable treatment in this connection.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEI am having inquiry made as to the points raised in the Questions of the hon. Member with reference to the carriage of furniture, and will inform him of the result.