The questions and answers are taken from the Times, Morning Post, Standard, Daily Chronicle, and the leading papers throughout the country.
“Temporary Abodes.
“Mr. Burt—To ask the President of the Local Government Board if the Government intend taking any steps early next session for bringing temporary abodes such as shows, tents, vans, and places of the kind, under the influence of the sanitary officers.”
Mr. Dodson, the President, said he would “consider whether the law as it stood was in need of amendment in this respect; but he could not, on this any more than on any other subject, now give any undertaking as to the introduction of a Bill next session.”
“Gipsy Children.
“Mr. Burt—To ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education if the Government intend taking any steps early next session for bringing about the education of gipsy and other travelling children living in vans, carts, shows, and other temporary dwellings.”
Mr. Mundella said: “It is exceedingly difficult to devise any effectual scheme for the education of the nomadic population referred to in the question of my hon. friend, and up to the present we have received no suggestion for dealing with the subject which appears to be practical. The matter, however, is ‘under consideration,’ and we propose during the recess to confer with the Local Government Board respecting it.”
Mr. Burt wrote to me as follows:
“House of Commons,
November 22, 1882.“My dear Mr. Smith,
“You will see from the Times to-day the answers given by Mr. Dodson and Mr. Mundella. They are not so encouraging as one would like, though it may do good to call attention to the subject.
“Very truly yours,
Thomas Burt.”
Parliament having been opened February 15, 1883, I began to make a move towards getting my Canal Boats Act Amendment Bill before the House of Commons for the third time—last year it was introduced to the House of Lords by Earl Stanhope—and lost no time in seeing my friends Mr. Burt and others upon the subject, some of whose names are upon the back of the Bill. The names upon the Bill are as follows: Mr. Burt, Mr. S. Morley, Mr. John Corbett, Mr. Pell, and Mr. Broadhurst. Feeling anxious, and seeing no difficulty in the matter, I wrote to Mr. Burt on March 3, 1883, about introducing a clause in the Bill to include gipsy and other travelling children—my plans for improving the condition of the canal children and gipsy children being identically the same in every particular so far as the provisions of the Act are concerned—and he replied as under:
“House of Commons,
March 8, 1883.“Dear Mr. Smith,
“If you want a new clause or any alteration in the Bill, kindly write it out on a copy of the Bill and forward it to me.
“I have seen Sir Charles Dilke, and he advises me to talk the matter over with Mr. Hibbert. I shall do so as soon as I can see Mr. Hibbert.
“I go to Newcastle to-morrow, returning on Monday night or Tuesday.
“I am not hopeful that the Government will do anything in the present state of business.
“Yours truly,
Thomas Burt.”
I added the following clause to the Bill, and at the same time I gave under the Bill more power to the Education Department than I had done in the previous Bills.