§ BARON HENRY DE WORMSasked the President of the Board of Trade, now that the Committee appointed by the Board of Trade on Lighthouse Illuminants has been dissolved, What steps he proposes to take to determine the question as to whether oil, gas, or electricity is the best Lighthouse Illuminant?
§ COLONEL KING-HARMANasked the President of the Board of Trade, now that the Committee appointed by the Board of Trade on Lighthouse Illuminants has been dissolved, What steps he proposes to take to settle the question as to whether gas, oil, or electricity is the best illuminant for lighthouses?
MR. CHAMBRELAINSir, the best answer will be found in the additional Correspondence on the subject of Lighthouse Illuminants which I have laid upon the Table, and which I hope will be in the hands of Members in a short time. The three lighthouse authorities, in consequence of the retirement from the experiments of the Irish Board, are again apart, and I have no longer any hope of bringing them into unanimous agreement. Under these circumstances the Committee has been dissolved, and the Lighthouse Boards have been informed that they will be left to put forward their own proposals, and the Board of Trade will endeavour to meet their individual wishes, subject, of course, to general considerations of expense and efficiency. If, for their own information, the Trinity House and the Commissioners of Northern Lights, or either of those Boards, should desire to carry out any comparative experiments on the best form of light, &c., the Board of Trade will be prepared to sanction any reasonable expenditure for the purpose, and also for such scientific assistance as the two Boards, or either of them, may desire to obtain; but the whole responsibility of the choice of scientific advisers and of the course of the experiments will be left to the lighthouse authorities.