§ MR. WEBSTER (St. Pancras, E.)asked the First Commissioner of Works, Whether, in view of the fact that the annual receipts from disturnpiked roads to the Imperial Exchequer is £215,000, and the contribution to the local expenditure in regard to those roads is given in proportion to their mileage alone, and not in reference to the previous increment from the tolls, nor to the present cost of the wear and tear, the Exchequer contribute a sum of only £1,000 annually in aid of the previously disturnpiked roads within the Metropolitan area; and, if such be the case, whether the road made through the Park by the First Commissioner of Works at Hyde Park Corner might be maintained out of the receipts received from the previously referred to disturnpiked roads generally?
§ THE FIRST COMMISSIONER (Mr. PLUNKET) (Dublin University)There are no receipts to the Imperial Exchequer from disturnpiked roads, and "the contribution to the local expenditure in regard to those roads" is not given "in proportion to their mileage alone;" but is based, in the case of the Metropolis, on the estimated annual cost of maintaining the roads as turnpike roads. The amount contributed by the Exchequer last year in respect of disturnpiked roads in the Metropolis was £1,759. As to the new streets at Hyde Park Corner, 508 the expense of maintaining them has now for four years been borne by the Exchequer without local contribution of any kind; and it is to put a stop to this state of affairs that I have asked Parliament to pass the Hyde Park Corner (New Streets) Bill.
§ MR. COX (Clare, E.)asked, whether the right hon. and learned Gentleman's attention had been directed to the great necessity of a crossing between Westminster Abbey and the House?
§ MR. PLUNKETI am afraid that question does not spring very directly from the last one.