§ MR. WHITWELL (for General Sir George Balfour)asked the President of the Board of Trade, If he could lay on the Table of the House a good descriptive List of all the Harbours, Ports, Piers, Creeks, Rivers, Docks, and Quays resorted to or used by vessels and boats for commerce, fishings, and refuge, distinguishing the owners of the several kinds; and, whether there is any descriptive Memoir of those Harbours, &c. when transferred to the Board of Trade, and their present state, with explanations as to the changes therein and outlays thereon since the transfer?
§ SIR CHARLES ADDERLEYSir, it would be impossible for me to undertake to lay before the House such a descriptive list as is asked for in the Question of the hon. and gallant Member. A Return was made to this House in 1874 (Parliamentary Paper, 213) of the names, &c., of the port and harbour authorities in the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands, as furnished by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Customs to the Board of Trade, but that Return does not contain the particulars now asked for. As regards the second portion of the Question, the only harbours which have been transferred to the Board of Trade are Ramsgate (which was transferred from the Harbour Trustees by the Harbours and Passing Tolls, &c., Act, 1861), Holy head and Port Patrick (which were transferred from the Admiralty by the Harbours Transfer Act, 700 1862), Dover, St. Catherine's (Jersey), and Alderney (which were transferred from the Admiralty in pursuance of the Harbours Transfer Act, 1865). A Return was made to this House (Parliamentary Paper, 151) in 1869 containing Reports upon the works at Holyhead, Dover, Alderney, Spurn Point, Portpatrick, and St. Catherine's (Jersey). Reports, which have been printed, were made the same year by the officers of this Board upon Ramsgate and Holyhead Harbours. A Memorandum as to Ramsgate has since been presented to Parliament (Parliamentary Paper 154 of 1873), and a final Report by the Superintending Engineer upon Holyhead Harbour has also been presented (Parliamentary Paper 296 of 1873). Alderney Harbour has since been retransferred to the Admiralty by the Alderney Harbour (Transfer) Act, 1874; the works at Portpatrick have been abandoned, and the Board of Trade relieved from all liability in respect thereof by an Act passed in 1873; and the works at St. Catherine's (Jersey) have, with the sanction of the Treasury, been handed over to the Insular Authority.