Mr. TYSON WILSONasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he is aware that a considerable amount of joinery work in the Director of Works' Department at the Portsmouth Dockyard is being given to outside contractors, with the result that joiners are being discharged and the woodworking machinery of the department laid idle; and, if so, what steps he proposes to take?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe only joinery work that has been obtained by contract is a few manufactured articles amounting to £14 8s. These were stock patterns of local manufacture. No carpenters or joiners were discharged in consequence of this, nor has any of the Works Department machinery been idle. One carpenter only has been discharged recently, and this was due to his absenting himself without leave for six days.