§ Mr. FIELDasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the contract for the enumerators' portfolios for the Census Office in Ireland was given to a contractor in Belfast; that underpaid female labour was employed on the work; and that a protest was made by the Dublin and Belfast branches of the National Union of Bookbinders and Machine Rulers; whether he will arrange that in all such Government contracts the Fair Wages Resolution is observed, and that the work shall be done by qualified bookbinders; and whether he will cause the Stationery Office to reply in reasonable time to inquiries so as to prevent contractors from having the work completed under unfair conditions before the answer is given?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe making of portfolios cannot be considered as work to be done only by bookbinders. The contract in question was entrusted, after competition, to a firm in Belfast, who employed women and girls upon the work. Upon the day on which the protest of the National Union of Bookbinders was received an inquiry was started, and as it does not appear that the Fair Wages Resolution can be construed as forbidding female labour in such a case, the only question for investigation was whether the contractors' workpeople were receiving wages equal to those paid to women and girls engaged upon similar work elsewhere. It was shown that no complaint could be sustained in this respect. It is regretted that the final reply to the National Union could not be made sooner.