§ MR. JORDAN (Clare, W.)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether £11,000 of the £13,500 cost of erecting the pier at Carrigaholt, County Clare, were granted by the Piers and Harbours Commissioners, for the express purpose of enabling fishery smacks to come in at all states of the tides; whether, as it has been designed by the Engineers of the Board of Works, it will afford that accommodation; whether the design of the engineers of the Board of Works is to put an elbow or bend on the pier; whether it is the intention of the engineers, or those responsible for the works, to leave the building of this elbow addition to some future time; whether the pier will then be unsuited for the purposes for which it was originally intended; whether representations have been made to the Board of Works by persons in the locality of the necessity and advisability of running out the pier into deep water; whether the Board of Works have declined to accede to these representations, and adhere to their own design; whether, if to admit vessels at all states of the tide (as originally intended) the pier will afterwards be extended into deep water, and the elbow, if erected, must be removed; whether that would entail large outlay which might be avoided by carrying out now 1075 the suggestions made to the Board of Works; and, whether there is any objection to lay upon the Table all the correspondence on the subject of this pier, including any recommendations made by the Piers and Harbours Commissioners?
§ THE SECRETART (Mr. JACKSON) (Leeds, N.)The amount of grant proposed by the Fishery Piers and Harbours Commissioners for the pier at Carriga-holt was £13,500. The pier at present under construction is that sanctioned on the recommendation of those Commissioners, and will run out into a depth at low-water spring tides of eight feet; being the maximum accommodation that can be obtained for the money available for the construction of the pier. To make it suitable for first-class fishing vessels at all stages of the tide, it would be necessary to extend its length so as to have not less than 12 feet in depth at low-water spring tides, but this would cost an additional £12,000, none of which is forthcoming. The design approved for the work has a cant or elbow at the outer end of the pier, and this portion is now being proceeded with. To have merely extended the pier direct without the cant would have left the harbour exposed without reaching deep water, as supposed; the depth at the head of the pier would, in fact, have only been increased by a few inches. The Board of Works, though most anxious to meet the wishes of those interested, have had no means for carrying out any other work than that originally approved and sanctioned. I see no public advantage in laying the correspondence upon the table.