THE EARL OF CARNARVONsaid, he wished to make a suggestion to the noble Earl the President of the Council relative to a matter of some importance at the present moment—he meant the Cattle Plague Returns, They were now arrived at that stage of the cattle plague which 120 made it of the utmost consequence that the Returns issued by the Privy Council should be reliable and trustworthy; but for some four or five weeks past the Returns issued by the Veterinary Department of the Privy Council Office had been very inaccurate; for it appeared that a number of the Inspectors, either from being overworked or indolent, had failed to send in their Returns, and there were no less than 246 districts, the Returns from which were in arrears. Legislation upon the subject was perfectly useless, unless something reliable could be obtained from it. It would be better that the Returns should be made every fortnight, or even three weeks, to have them correct, rather than that they should have weekly Returns which were professedly incomplete and incorrect, and upon which no dependence could be placed. He suggested that the publication of these Returns should be delayed until the Privy Council was able to make them reliable. He did not ask for an immediate answer, as he had not given the noble Earl notice of the Question.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, it was very inconvenient to call attention to subjects of this important nature without giving some notice. If notice had been given at least two hours beforehand it might have been possible to give some explanation, and the time of the House might not have been taken up to no purpose. He had made inquiries on the subject not many days ago, and in consequence inspectors had been sent down to various districts from which no Returns had been made to see what could be done. He doubted whether a mere extension of time would do anything to make the Returns more correct.
THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYurged that, as the Privy Council had the power, something should be done to enforce correctness in these Returns.