§ MR. RADCLIFFE COOKE (Newington, W.)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether the experimental tunnel under the British Channel extends for a long distance beyond low water mark under that part of the bed of the sea which is claimed by the Government; whether this part of the tunnel was bored by the Submarine Company or the promoters of the enterprize without the knowledge and in spite of the orders of the Board of Trade, and in defiance of an order made by Mr. Justice Kay in 1882; and, whether, having regard to the statement of the then President of the Board of Trade on March 30, 1882, and after the decisive vote of the House of Commons on the 27th ultimo on the Channel Tunnel Bill, following upon similar votes in 1885 and 1887, the Government will use the powers at their disposal to permanently disable so much of the experimental tunnel as has been already made?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)Six hundred yards of the experimental tunnel were bored, as it appears from a Parliamentary Paper presented in 1882, against the orders of the Board of Trade, and 36 yards of that distance were bored in defiance of the order of Mr. Justice Kay. I do not see at present the necessity to take the course suggested by the hon. Member in the last paragraph of his Question; but I have directed one of the Inspecting Officers of the Board of Trade to Report to me on the present condition of those works.
§ Message to attend the Lords' Commissioners;—
§ The House went;—and being returned;—
421§ MR. SPEAKERreported the Royal Assent to several Bills.