§ Mr. MACLEANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the price of Is. for the OFFICIAL REPORTS of the Parliamentary Debates is prohibitive, and prevents many working people from purchasing these reports; whether he is prepared to consider the issue of a cheap edition which could be sold for Id.; and whether the circulation of this low priced copy would cover the cost of production, and at the same time convey to the genera) public full particulars of the work their Parliamentary representatives were doing?
§ Mr. BALDWINOn the general question of the price of the OFFICIAL REPORT, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for the Don Valley Division (Mr. T. Williams) on the 30th ultimo. Unless the revenue from sales were to be supplemented by considerable receipts from advertisements—and I doubt whether hon. Members would welcome this innovation—I see no reason to believe that a cheap edition priced at Id. or even 2d. could be made to cover the cost of production. When the Report was priced at 3d. a copy the average daily sales did not exceed 1,400 copies.