Land Problems and National Welfare 



In the last Parliament there were about no 

 M.P.'s who were members of the Central 

 Chamber; in the present Parliament (igo6- 

 igio) there are about eighty. Every year 

 these members have been asked to ballot for 

 private members' Bills at the beginning of each 

 session. On an average barely twenty have re- 

 plied at all, and of those only three or four have 

 promised their ballot. Quite recently twelve 

 members were asked to put their names on 

 the back of a certain Bill ; only one took the 

 trouble to reply. The attendance of members 

 at meetings of the Parliamentary Committee 

 of the Central Chamber is deplorable — usually 

 three or four out of fifteen ; yet these meetings 

 are always held in the House of Commons in 

 order to meet the convenience of members. 

 The late Government allowed six hours for the 

 discussion of agricultural questions in five ses- 

 sions, but the only protest came from outside the 

 House of Commons. This (1908) session the 

 Government gave a day to the vote for the 

 Board of Agriculture ; only one Agricultural 

 Member had any question to raise, and the day 

 was wasted on matters outside Agriculture, while 

 scarcely a score of members representing agri- 

 cultural divisions took the trouble to attend. 

 There have been more than 100 Acts passed 

 during the last thirty-eight years which increased 

 the burden of local taxation, but, with the excep- 



312 



