§ SIR W. J. COLLINS (St. Pancras, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in the assimilation of the law in regard to merchant shipping in the Channel Islands to that obtaining in this country, as the outcome of the conference held last summer with the insular authorities, at which a general agreement was arrived at as to the desirability of securing uniformity of legislation.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe result of the conference was the preparation by the Board of Trade of a draft Bill, which was communicated to the insular authorities in April last. The draft has since been under the consideration of those authorities with a view to the submission of proposals for legislation to the States of Jersey and Guernsey; and I hope that before long effective legislation will result.