COLONEL DICKSONin calling the attention of the Government to Mr. Bateman's Report on the River Shannon, said he would submit that the sum of £283,000 estimated by that gentleman as the cost of certain improvements connected with that river, should be granted out of the public funds, inasmuch as a great increase had taken place in the taxation of Ireland, and a great diminution in that of England since the time of the Union. There was great distress in Ireland, and the proposed works on the Shannon, besides being remunerative in themselves, would afford employment to a large number of people. On that ground alone, he thought the Government should not hesitate to undertake them. The hon. and gallant Gentleman concluded by moving for Copy of the Reports made by the Inspector of 1329 Fisheries and by Mr. Forsythe, C.E., to the Commissioners of Public Works relative to the defective state of the Fish Ladders on the Upper Shannon from Athlone to Boyle.
MR. PEELsaid, he was ready to admit the value of the Report, which quite justified the selection of Mr. Bateman by the Government to draw it up. The matter in dispute was the inundations from the Shannon, and it was alleged that the inundations were aggravated by the works of the Shannon Commissioners; but Mr. Bateman reported that that was not so, but that, on the contrary, the effect of these works was to mitigate them. The expense of the works necessary to remedy the evils complained of, was about £250,000. It was not the intention of Government to propose that the costs of these works should be defrayed by the country; but if done at all, they should be done at the cost of the proprietors of the land. He had no objection to produce the papers.
§ Motion agreed to.
§
Copy ordered,
Of the Reports made by the Inspector of Fisheries and by Mr. Forsythe, C.E., to the Commissioners of Public Works relative to the defective state of the Fish Ladders on the Upper Shannon from Athlone to Boyle."—(Colonel Dickson.)