HC Deb 23 August 1883 vol 283 cc1760-1
GENERAL SIR GEORGE BALFOUR

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he will obtain and furnish the Papers referred to (in C. 3,726) relating to Dover, excluding the Reports of the Committees and Commissions previously laid upon the Table of the House; if he will obtain specific information as to the number of acres of varying depths of water within the Harbour area, and furnish a rough plan showing the length of the breakwaters and arms forming the proposed Dover Harbour, and an estimate of cost of constructing the separate portions in the way stated in the former plans of 1840 to 1847; if he will procure a Statement of the income to be expected, and the rate of interest which that income will provide, on the capital to be invested for making this Harbour; and, finally, if the information now asked for can be made available for use during the Recess, so as to facilitate criticisms on this proposed Harbour?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT,

in reply, said, he was afraid he could not answer in any detail this Question. As to the Papers referred to, he should be happy to consult with the hon. and gallant Member. No definite plan for the extension of Dover Harbour had yet been placed before Parliament; but, roughly speaking, the number of acres of varying depths of water within the harbour area was 145. A statement as to the income to be expected would be laid before Parliament before Parliament was asked to vote the money for the harbour.

SIR ALEXANDER GORDON

asked whether the House, having voted £16,000 for the purpose of building a prison at Dover to lodge the convicts who are to execute the Dover Harbour Works, was committed or not to the execution of the works at Dover Harbour?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT,

in reply, said, that they were all agreed there should be some harbour at Dover. He was not a naval or a military man, nor even the Board of Trade, and it was only his business to employ the convicts, and the harbour at Dover seemed to him to be a good method in which they could be employed. The House was not pledged to any particular form of the harbour; and it might be made larger or smaller, as the House chose, when the full plan was laid before it.