§ MR. LEIGHTONasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether in the Highway Bill which he has introduced he will insert a Clause to deal with the exceptional case of the Shrewsbury and Holy head Turnpike Road Commission in those districts where the ordinary Turnpike Road Trusts have expired or are about to expire; whether, considering that the said Commission was reported in 1873 to have £3,493 in hand as assets, to have no ascertainable creditors, and to manage its income at a cost of more than £20 per cent per annum for clerk, surveyor, and incidental expenses, he will recommend its extinction; and, whether, considering that the road was made for Imperial purposes and of unusual width, he will, should the turnpikes on it be abolished, recommend that an Imperial subsidy should be granted towards its maintenance to the local authority upon whom the burden of its maintenance would then be thrown?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH,in reply, said, it was no part of his duty, as framer of the Highway Bill, to provide clauses for the more rapid extinction of Turnpike Trusts other than those already in the Bill. The case of the Holy head Road was a peculiar one, in that it was a perpetual trust, and he was not prepared to say that it did not require amendment or repeal. It appeared, however, that that road was more than self-supporting, having in 1873 £3,493 in hand as assets, and no ascertainable creditors, and it would seem primâ facie to provide some machinery for the extinction of the toll. The case was not, under the circumstances, one in which an Imperial subsidy should be given.