COLONEL DUNNEsaid, he rose to ask the President of the Board of Trade, When the repairs to the Landing Pier at Holyhead will be finished, whether the works recommended by the Committee will be 945 carried out, and if not finished when they will be finished? At present passengers were put to much inconvenience in landing and embarking there.
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, the Committee referred to had not recommended any particular plan. There were two plans considered, and the Members of the Committee were more favourable to one than to the other, but there was no definite recommendation that it should be adopted. He was aware their opinion was that an endeavour should be made to carry out the second plan. That had been done, and he had received a communication from the engineer, and also from the harbour-master at Holyhead, to the effect that the works, so far as the accommodation of steam vessels was concerned, had been completed. A sheltered berth had been provided for the incoming steamer, where the passengers might be landed without delay, and also a berth from which the out-going steamer would take in her passengers and go to sea without difficulty. If the Dublin and Holyhead Steam Packet Company did not avail themselves of these sheltered berths the Government could not help it. Their practice was to take in their passengers and land them at the end of the wooden jetty, but by coming a little further up they would come to the sheltered berth, where there could be very little swell. In accordance with one of the suggestions of the Committee the lighthouse had been moved to the end of the jetty, and a light would very soon be exhibited there. A berth had also been provided for the reserve packet, where she could be in perfect safety and be available at a moment's notice. He was not aware that there now existed any difficulty in the speedy landing and embarkation of mails. It had been the desire of the Government to carry out to the best of their ability, and under the most competent advice, the recommendations of the Committee so far as they could be gathered from what passed in it. They had expended in doing so nearly all the money voted for that purpose by the House.
§ MR. LAIRDsaid, that having been a Member of the Committee, and knowing that the recommendations were of a very moderate character, involving no considerable outlay, he wished to understand distinctly whether those recommendations had been fully carried out?
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, that the Committee did not make any definite re- 946 commendations. The works, with the exception of the dredging, were on the point of being completed, and could now be used.
§ Main Question, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair," put, and agreed to.