§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade, Whether the attention of the Board of Trade has been called, through the President or otherwise, to Dr. Tyndall's letter to The Times of 7th instant, complaining of the manner in which the recent experiments made by the Trinity House with lighthouse illuminants at South Foreland were conducted; whether statements similar in tendency, and calling for further investigation of the subject, have reached him from other quarters, and appeared in The Glasgow Herald and other newspapers; and, whether, under these circumstances, the Board of Trade will give the matter further and careful consideration?
§ THE SECRETARY (Baron HENRY DE WORMS) (Liverpool, East Toxteth)The statements referred to by the hon. Member have been brought under the notice of the Board of Trade. These statements, as far as can be seen, are repetitions of what has been urged before, and upon which a decision has been taken and placed before Parliament in a Return of the whole correspondence which has been circulated early in the present Session. In the present state of the Mercantile Marine Fund, which is not satisfactory, and having regard to the fact that experi- 1626 ments have been carried out so recently at a cost of £9,000, I hesitate to impose on the general body of shipowners an additional burden by suggesting the renewal of experiments which have not been asked for by either the Irish or the Scottish General Lighthouse Authority.