Parliament On Thursday, June 18th, the Upper House, in which
Lord Salisbury has given up the leadership of the Opposition to Lord Hailsham, discussed the Miners' Welfare Fund, the one prosperous branch of the coal mining industry. Since it was first levied, £8k millions, or about £1 million a year, has been spent out of the Fund on excellent objects, and by the end of this year it is reckoned that there will be £3 millions in hand, mostly unallocated to any purpose. Where else do we hear of such superfluity ? Certainly not among the shareholders or wage-earners in the mines. Lord Gainford proposed that for the present the levy should be limited to one year instead of five, but withdreNi his amendment when the Government undertook that, when Lord Chelmsford's Welfare Committee reported, the matter would come before Parliament again. The Lords also ,ended the Committee stage of the Merchant Shipping Bill and passed the clause which reverses the old helm orders. In the Commons the Scottish Members were at work under the guillotine upon the application to Scotland of the Land Values clauses of the Finance Bill. They found the Lord Advocate, who was in charge, fairly obdurate.
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