§ MR. GABBETTasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, What action has been taken by the Commission on Railway Rates in Ireland; whether a Report has been presented to Parliament with reference thereto; and, whether any Government control will be exercised over the rates of freights, and on Railways in Ireland, on the present action of the Railway Companies to destroy all trade by excessive freights on goods imported to and exported from the south and west of Ireland?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAIN, in reply, said, he was not aware that any Report had been presented to Parliament with reference to railway rates in Ireland, nor did he think that, in recent times, any Commission had sat on the subject. But in the Session of 1882 there was a Select Committee on the question of railway rates generally; and he proposed, as early as possible, to introduce a measure, founded in part on the Report of that Committee, and the provisions of the Bill would apply to Ireland as well as to other parts of the United Kingdom.