§ MR. BELLAIRS (Lynn Regis)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, why the prizes to petty officers, seamen, and boys have been reduced from £8,880 in 1906–7 to £8,300 in 1907–8; and whether he can state why the table giving the distribution of this grant for proficiency in different weapons has been omitted from the new Navy Estimates.
§ (Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) The amount provided for prizes for good shooting in the 1907–8 Estimates, although showing a reduction of £580 on the estimate as compared with the prior year, is in fact based on the anticipation of more money being expended for these prizes during the next financial year, the payments actually made in recent years having fallen short of the provision by considerably more than that sum. The table referred to 1781 has been omitted on the ground that its inclusion in the printed Estimates had not been found to serve any useful purpose.