MR. STAVELEY HILLasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether, having regard to the great importance attaching to the practicability of a route through the Hudson's Straits to the grain-growing districts of the North-West, Her Majesty's Government will assist in this research by placing one or more vessels of the Royal Navy at such stations and for such periods as may enable a report to be made upon the number of days during the year for which such route is available?
§ MR. CAMPBELL - BANNERMANWe are in possession of information derived from the experience of a century and a-half, as to the limited season of the year for navigating Hudson Strait. This experience has proved that the Strait is so hampered with fixed and floating ice as not to be free for secure navigation for more than an average of seven or eight weeks in the year, confined between July and September. The open time varies considerably from year to year; for although the Strait is occasionally open by the middle of July, it has been found closed until the middle of August, and is rarely free after September. It would be an arduous and, to some extent, a dangerous service for one or more of Her Majesty's ships to be placed in this inhospitable region for a season to watch the movements of the ice; and the observations of many years would be necessary in order to come to a safe conclusion. The Government are, therefore, not prepared to undertake the duties suggested by the hon. and learned Gentleman, although they fully appreciate the importance of the subject.