§ Mr. DEVLINasked the Chief Secretary whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Belfast distress committee refused a grant of £1,000 for the relief of local distress, on the grounds that no distress existed in that city and that there was plenty of employment for everybody seeking work; whether he could state the number of cases on the books of the distress committee at present; whether he is aware of the numbers of the unemployed of Belfast assembled outside the emigration offices of the Queensland Government seeking free passages to that Colony; whether he can state the number of paupers in the Belfast union workhouse at present and the number for the corresponding period of last year; and whether he has any official information as to the extent of distress from unemployment in Belfast at present?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Belfast Distress Committee appear to have considered that the grant mentioned was not required, as there was, in their opinion, no distress of an exceptional character. They further stated that all the suitable men on the books of the Labour Exchange who applied for labourers' work to the Corporation had been supplied with work. The Local Government Board are informed that the Distress Committee have not found it necessary to open the register of unemployed in Belfast during the past winter. I have no information as to the workers looking for free passes to Queensland, but it is the fact that large crowds of persons assembled outside the emigration offices seeking those passes. The number of inmates in the Belfast Workhouse on 25th March was 3,559, the number on the corresponding date in 1910 being 3,815. The Board are informed that the number on the live register of the Belfast Labour Exchange is 724, for about 290 of whom labouring work such as that provided by a distress committee might be considered suitable.