§ DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid)asked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether Roche's Point Coastguard Station, which is inhabited by fifty-one persons, is provided with a pier, a boat harbour, or a boat slip; whether the want of any one or all of such structures involves risk of the lives of the men employed on boat service in tempestuous weather, as well as the boats in use, the property of the Admiralty; whether it is true that the inhabitants of the station, being unprovided with drinking water, have been obliged to utilise as such the water collected from the roofs of the houses in the station during rainy weather, and if it is a fact that the Naval authorities considered this water to be so bad that they issued orders that all water so collected should be boiled prior to its being used by the men or their families; whether the Naval authorities have been repeatedly urged by the inspecting officers to remedy the existing dangerous state of affairs by sinking a pump; and, if the present Lords Commissioners will 1805 recommend, without further delay, the providing for some means of preventing any outbreak of sickness which might ensue from the want of fresh water on the station?
§ THE CIVIL LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. R. W. DUFF) (Banffshire)(who replied) said: No pier, boat harbour, or slip exists at Roche's Point Coastguard Station. The boats are not used in rough weather, and therefore no accident is likely to occur. The well at the station yields brackish water, and the occupants use rain water, boiled to insure purity. Representations have been made to the Admiralty as to the desirability of sinking a new well; but the negotiations entered into for that purpose have hitherto failed, owing to the rent asked for the ground being considered excessive. There has been no sickness at the station for the last two years.