§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)asked the President of the Board of Trade, with regard to the statement that the total amount received by the Egyptian Authorities in respect of light dues in the Red Sea amounted to £60,000 annually and the expenditure to only £30,000, Whether he has seen the statements in The Liverpool Journal of Commerce and The Bullionist that, as a matter of fact, the receipts are now £90,000 a-year and the expenditure only £30,000, there being thus left a clear annual balance of £60,000; and, if so, whether this Estimate is correct; was it agreed upon between the Egyptian Government and the Powers, when the light dues were first levied, that the present tariff shall be subject to be increased or lowered according to the state of the budget of lighthouses to be drawn up every year; whether such a budget has ever been drawn up; and, whether the Government has any objection to lay upon the Table of the House the whole of the Papers on the subject of lighting the Red Sea, the suggestions made for improving the lights, and a statement of the profits now derived from the light dues?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)I have not seen the statements referred to by the hon. Member. The amount of Receipts and Expenditure by the Egyptian Government in respect of their lighthouse administration, as shown by their accounts, which are furnished annually, were stated in this House by the Secretary to the Board of Trade on the 21st of February, 1887, in reply to the hon. Member for Greenock (Mr. T. Sutherland), and are, speaking generally, in accordance with the figures now quoted by the hon. Member. About one-sixth of those receipts are on account of Egyptian lights in the Mediterranean, and about five-sixths on account of those in the Gulf of Suez and the Northern portion of the Red Sea. The question as to any agreement between the Egyptian Government and the Powers respecting reduction of light dues was answered by the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on the 1st of 160 September, 1887, to the effect that there is no formal agreement. The Egyptian Government, in a notice to the maritime trade issued in 1870, made the declaration referred to; but it leaves the reduction within their own discretion. The accounts are, as I have already stated, furnished annually. It would not be advisable to publish the Papers, as the question is still the subject of communications with other Governments.