§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEasked the noble Lord the Member for North Derbyshire, On what principle the arrangements recommended with regard to the Teignmouth and Dawlish Turnpike Trust are founded?
§ LORD GEORGE CAVENDISH,in reply, said, the principle on which the arrangements recommended had been founded was that which the Committee had endeavoured to apply in all cases of insolvent trusts—namely, the doing of justice to all by making equitable arrangements between the public, the ratepayers, and the creditors. The first Act of Parliament was granted to the Teignmouth and Dawlish Trust 50 years ago. Their last Act dated back six years, and the trust had since been continued from year to year. They had 24 miles of road, and in that distance there were 22 gates and bars, seven of which formed a network round the town of Teignmouth. Their ordinary bonded debt was over £24,000, in addition to 1711 which they had a preference debt, with which the Committee could not interfere, of £700. The tolls averaged about £1,100 a-year, and the trustees had applied the income to paying the interest on their debt. They had not paid off any part of the corpus, nor had they repaired the roads. The Local Board of Teignmouth had therefore applied that the trust be at once discontinued.