§ LORD DENHAMMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government why British Railways charge the same fare, on passenger trains, for a guinea-pig as they do for a fourteen-year-old child.]
§ LORD HILTON OF UPTONMy Lords, it is a matter of management for the British Railways Board to make their own conditions for the carriage of passengers and luggage and to fix charges for the services they offer in cases such as these. I am, however, grateful to the noble Lord for raising this Question since it gives me the opportunity of saying that my right honourable friend the Minister of Transport has just been informed by the Railways Board that instructions are being issued to their staff that small animals, such as mice, hamsters and guinea-pigs, when carried in a box not exceeding a stated size, are to be included in the passenger's free luggage weight allowance. These animals must not be objectionable to other passengers and must not be taken out of their receptacles during the journey. This also applies to birds in cages and fish in tanks or bowls.
§ LORD DENHAMMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for that unexpectedly encouraging Answer, may I ask him whether he is familiar with the famous Punch cartoon which appeared in 1869, in which a railway porter explains to an old lady surrounded by a menagerie of pets: 228
Stationmaster says, mum, as cats is 'dogs' and rabbits is dogs and so's parrots, but this 'ere 'tortis' is a insect, and there ain't no charge for it.Does not the noble Lord think it high time that the economic thinking of British Railways should have advanced from that level?
§ LORD HILTON OF UPTONMy Lords, I am glad that the noble Lord was pleased with the first part of my Answer. I really cannot go back one hundred years or more.