§ Mr. KENNEDYasked whether the Department can furnish an estimate of the annual output of Irish creamery butter later than the year ending the 1st June, 1913; if not, why this cannot be done; and will he say if similar statements for Holland and other competing countries are two years in arrear with their returns?
§ Mr. RUSSELLThe Department are not in a position to supply a later estimate of the value of the total output of butter in Ireland than that for the year ended 1st June, 1913, which was furnished in reply to the hon. Member's question of the 16th instant and which was based upon information specially obtained in 1913 for purposes of the census of Irish Agricultural production which takes place quinquennially. As already intimated to the hon. Member, it is not possible to state what proportion of the total output of butter in Ireland relates to creamery butter. The Department have no information as to the matter referred to in the concluding portion of the question.
§ Mr. KENNEDYasked by what total amount do the Department propose to reduce the Grant of £5,500 spent annually on the Irish creamery butter industry?
§ Mr. RUSSELLThe Department propose to reduce by approximately £1,000 the expenditure on their schemes for improvement of the butter industry in the 1025W year 1915–16 as compared with the preceding year.
§ Mr. KENNEDYasked whether each instructor in dairying receives the same amount of salary from the Department; and, if not, why, giving the actual salaries paid for the years 1912, 1913, and 1914?
§ Mr. RUSSELLThe scale of salary for instructors in dairying is £150, rising by increments of £10 to a maximum of £250, the increment being not necessarily annual. The salaries of the instructors vary according to the length of their service from the date on which they were placed on the scale. All the instructors are paid according to this scale except one, who discharges special duties in addition to the ordinary work of his office, and receives remuneration in excess of the maximum provided by the scale. The eight instructors employed were paid at the following rates in the year 1912: Four at £200 per annum; two at £220 per annum; one at £230 per annum; and one at £300 per annum. In the year 1913: Four at £210; two at £230; one at £250; and one at £350. In the year 1914: Four at £220; two at £240; one at £250; and one at £350.