§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether, during the Recess, tenders were received, in response to advertisements of the Commissioners of Irish Lights inserted in the newspapers, for certain lenses and other apparatus for the new lighthouse at Bull Rock; whether the tender sent in by Mr. J. R. Wigham, for Messrs. Barbier and Co., of Paris, was the lowest tender received in answer to that advertisement; whether Mr. Wigham's and Messrs. Barbier's work has frequently been used with satisfaction by the Lighthouse Authorities; whether the Commissioners of Irish Lights consequently decided to accept Messrs. Barbier's tender; whether the Board of Trade interfered and interposed their statutory authority for the purpose of reversing the decision of the Commissioners of Irish Lights, and caused the order to be given to a firm whose tender was higher than that sent in by Mr. Wigham on behalf of Messrs. Barbier and Co.; whether this action of the Board of Trade was decided on at a 1482 full meeting of the members of the Board of Trade; and, whether he will state the grounds on which the action of the Board was based?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)Three tenders for the supply of a dioptric apparatus for the Bull Rock Lighthouse were submitted in September last by the Commissioners of Irish Lights to the Board of Trade for their statutory sanction. The lowest tender was that of Messrs. Barbier and Fenestre, of Paris, amounting to £2,980. The next lowest was that of Messrs. Chance Brothers and Company, of Birmingham, amounting to £3,130. The Commissioners recommended the acceptance of the lowest tender. My Predecessor at the Board of Trade, noticing that this tender was only £150 below that of the British firm of Messrs. Chance and Co., and that, should the work be carried out by a French firm, this difference would be liable to be further reduced by the additional expenses to be incurred by the engineer in visiting France to inspect the work, decided that it would be desirable to depart from the usual custom of accepting the lowest trustworthy tender, and to place the work in the hands of the British firm.