SIR GILBERT PARKERI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether the value of £241,000,000 set on the corporate property and undertakings of the councils of boroughs, other than Metropolitan boroughs, in England and Wales, according to the Return obtained in 1904, represented in whole or in part the original cost of the undertakings and works.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSThe value of the assets comprised in the total of £241,000,000 was estimated in different ways in different boroughs. In some cases the original cost was apparently taken as the estimated value. The remarks in column 12 of the Return contain further information on the point, and I will send a copy of the Return to the hon. Member.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSThe hon. Gentleman had better peruse the Return and draw his own inference.