§ Mr. NEWMANasked whether the attention of the President of the Board of Trade has been drawn to the inconvenience and delay caused to intending emigrants from this country to our oversea Dominions; whether he is aware that the Orient Line report third-class advance outward bookings, January to June of this year, of 8,000, as compared with 2,500 in the corresponding months of 1911, and that it is impossible to now secure a third-class passage by any line to Australia before the end of July at the earliest; and whether, in view of the many thousands anxious to avail themselves of the opportunity offered of leaving this country, the Government will introduce legislation to provide facilities in the way of supplemental steamship accommodation to the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand?
Mr. BUXTONI am making inquiries with regard to the statement in the first part of the question. The matter, however, seems to me one rather for the representatives of the oversea Dominions than for the Board of Trade. Legislation on the lines suggested is not contemplated, and I have no reason to think that British shipowners will not be able to provide for the emigrant traffic from the United Kingdom to the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand as well as elsewhere.