60. Mr. A. T. DAVIESasked the First Commissioner of Works whether, in considering the renewal of the lease to the Royal Zoological Society, he will make it a condition that members of the public shall be admitted on all days of the week?
The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of AGRICULTURE (Sir A. Boscawen)I have been asked to reply, as the gardens are held by the Royal Zoological Society under the Commissioners of Woods. The public are admitted on all days of the week excepting Sundays, which are specially reserved for Fellows and their friends. The Society is largely dependent on the subscriptions of Fellows, and it would not be practicable, as the Society is at present constituted, to extend facilities for the admission of the public to include Sundays, while maintaining the gardens on a self-supporting basis without any cost to the public beyond the small fees charged for admission.