RESOLUTION. (Hansard, 6 July 1880)

§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEY

said, the Certificate was passed by the Board of Trade under the Railway Facilities Acts, and the opponents received a full hearing. Their objections were fully inquired into, Colonel Yolland, one of the most able and experienced of the Board's Inspectors, having been sent down to visit Whitehaven and make a local inquiry. Colonel Yolland's views were embodied in the Report which the Board of Trade had laid upon the Table of the House. The Trustees of Whitehaven Harbour had no locus standi as competing railway proprietors, because their railway only ran round the harbour, and could not in any way be of service in bringing the coal from the Croft Pit to the Furness Railway, that being the object of the promoters of the line for which a Certificate had been given. That was also the answer to the objection which the Harbour Trustees urged against the Board of Trade for not having given a Provisional Order instead of a Certificate. They had no power under the Act to make a Provisional Order unless the opposition came from a competent Railway or Canal Company. It was further urged that the modification in the scheme which Colonel Yolland recommended and the Board of Trade carried out to meet the representations of the Harbour Trustees as to the interference with their road were ultra vires. While he (Mr. Evelyn Ashley) denied this, he, at the same time, pointed out that this objection came with very bad grace from the Harbour Trustees, as it was at their instance, and for their benefit, that the alterations were made. The Board of Trade submitted that, having made a full inquiry, and heard all the parties concerned, and then made a Certificate in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Parliament, they might fairly ask the House not to annul their act without inquiry.

§ MR. CAVENDISH BENTINCK

said, he was greatly obliged to his hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade for the explanation he had been good enough to give. He had been intrusted with a Petition from the municipal authorities of Whitehaven, who were also the urban sanitary authority, in which a complaint was made of the Order of the Board of Trade, which had been placed upon the Table, under the Railway Construction Act. He had, 1751 therefore, considered it his duty to bring the matter under the attention of the Board of Trade, in order to see that no irregularity was committed, and no absolute injustice done. Having heard the explanation of his hon. Friend, he was bound to say that it did seem to him satisfactory as regarded the nature of the inquiry held. It also clearly showed that the technical grounds advanced by the Petitioners for objecting to the Order would fail before any Committee of the House, and that it would be held by the highest authorities that they had no locus standi in the matter. Under these circumstances, and feeling that the matter had been fully brought under the notice of the House, and in a mode that was satisfactory to the Petitioners, who, he hoped, would see that nothing had been left undone to establish their rights, if they had any, he had much pleasure in complying with the request of his hon. Friend, and he would not persevere with the Resolution he had moved.