HC Deb 16 June 1854 vol 134 c261
MR. H. HERBERT

said, he wished to ask the hon. Secretary of the Treasury whether he intended to propose the Vote for Kingstown Harbour in its present form, and when the Packet Service Estimates would be laid on the table of the House?

MR. J. WILSON

said, with respect to Kingstown Harbour it was quite true that he had consented to postpone the Vote, which had been before the House upon a former night; and the reason why he had postponed it was his want of knowledge of the existence of a Report, which had been referred to by his hon. Friend, as having been made by Mr. Rendel to the Treasury with reference to that harbour. It turned out, as he had suspected at the time, that Mr. Rendel had made no Report to the Treasury, and had received no communication from the Treasury upon the subject; but he had been consulted by the Board of Works in Ireland, and he made a Report to them. He admitted that that Report ought to have been communicated to the Treasury, and that it was inconvenient that the Treasury should have been without it; but he had since seen the chairman of the Board of Works, and had had Mr. Rendel's Report, and he was bound to say that, upon reading it, it seemed to him that what they were doing at Kingstown was not that which was best calculated for the ultimate advantage of the harbour. The Report, therefore, had been referred back to Mr. Rendel, with a request that he would reconsider the whole question of the harbour, and with a view to the adoption of the plans suggested in his first Report. It was his intention to propose the Vote in its present form, because it would be equally applicable in that form to any plan which it might be ultimately determined to carry out. With respect to the Packet Service Estimates, he hoped they would be on the table in the course of a few days.