HC Deb 12 July 1877 vol 235 cc1179-80
SIR H. DRUMMOND WOLFF

asked the Secretary to the Admiralty, If he will produce the text of the option given to the Admiralty till the end of the Session for the purchase of the Mount Boon site, alluded to in the answer given by him on the 10th instant?

MR. A. F. EGERTON,

in reply, said, that, as he had already stated, the option was given to the Admiralty verbally by Mr. Edmund Augustus Smith, the receiver of the estate, and was afterwards confirmed by letters, which he would read to the House.

SIR H. DRUMMOND WOLFF

Is the hon. Gentleman prepared to lay them upon the Table?

MR. A. F. EGERTON

I do not think it is necessary to lay them upon the Table.

Sir H. DRUMMOND WOLFF

Then, I object to their being read unless they are to be laid upon the Table.

MR. A. F. EGERTON

explained that there would be no objection to lay the letters upon the Table if they were moved for, but he did not think the House would deem it necessary. The first letter, which was signed "E. J. Smith," and dated March 19, 1875, stated that the purchase of a portion of the estate of Mount Boon for the erection of a Naval College had been before the Master of the Rolls on the previous day, and the writer was authorized to negotiate the sale, which he proceeded to do, offering the land at the rate of £200 per acre. The next letter was addressed to Mr. Lambert, Private Secretary to the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, and was dated the 31st of May, 1877. It was as follows:— As the Dartmouth site was, so it is, and so it will be. The Master of the Rolls gave his sanction to the negotiations, and so it remains.