§ Mr. FALLEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he was aware that a request from the Census enumerators of certain parts of Portsmouth was first forwarded to the Registrar-General, who regretted he was unable to acceds thereto in consequence of Treasury regulations, and that on the Treasury being approached the officials declined to deal with the matter but referred the applicants to the registrar; and if he would give instructions that the request of these enumerators should be attended to and considered?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe scale of allowances was fixed by regulation made under the Census Act and approved by the Treasury. Any representations on the subject of the scale should be made to the Registrar-General, who will exercise his discretion as to dealing with them
§ Mr. FALLEMay I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the statement made in the question that a request was made to the Registrar and that he referred it to the Treasury, and that the Treasury referred it back to the Registrar, and can he suggest any course which was open to these gentlemen to obtain an answer to their question?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEAs a matter of fact the question does not state what the request of these petitioners had reference to. But I made inquiries into the facts, and I understand it had reference to the scale of payment desired. The Registrar-General has got a scale laid down by the regulations which he ought to apply. If there was any reason for a departure from that scale he ought to have made application to the Treasury for leave to depart from that scale. Any application to that effect would have been considered. No application to that effect has been received.