OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 29 June 1888)

§ COLONEL NOLAN (Galway, N.)
said, he had given Notice to call attention to a most important subject, the Report of the Royal Commission which was appointed to inquire into Drainage, Harbours, and Railways in Ireland. It was a question of which he might say the Government had lived upon it for the last two years. There was a solemn promise from the noble Lord the late Chancellor of the Exchequer (Lord Randolph Churchill) that great things would be done for Ireland by this Commission, or, at any rate, if the Commission reported the possibility of doing great things, the Government would undertake them. This was 22 months ago, and it was a promise not of the noble Lord as Member for South Paddington, but as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Representative of the Cabinet. Of course, it was not possible at that hour to go into the subject properly; but he would point out that the Commissioners had made a valuable Report recommending that great changes should be made in the railway system; that the present system of guarantees was absolutely futile; that money offered at 2 per cent was not worth more than 1½ per cent; and they also made recommendations for deep sea harbours in connection with railways, and that drainage should form part of the scheme. Of the latter he need not say much, as the Government were going to introduce Bills on the subject. He was afraid they 1845 would be useless measures, for the Government were attempting the most difficult task in engineering to drain rivers and make them navigable at the same time. It might be easy to drain a river, not so easy to make it navigable, but to combine the two was one of the most difficult engineering feats in the world. Unless the Government would find a substantial part of the money, it was not likely to be a profitable undertaking for the Irish taxpayers. It was of no use attempting to explain this subject, which was of a somewhat technical character, to-night; but it was the duty of the Government to say at what time would they allow this Report of the Commission to be discussed; would they bring it forward themselves, or allow Irish Members to bring it forward in some fashion? He was afraid the Government were purposely leaving the question of arterial drainage to the end of the Session. Some £3,000,000 or £4,000 000 were to be transferred to the relief of local taxation in England, and what was presumed to be a proportionate amount was to be allocated to Ireland; but he was afraid that various Commissions would try to secure much of the money that ought to go to the relief of local rates as in England. He was afraid that at the end of the Session the Drainage Bills would be rushed through without proper discussion, the engineers' reports would not be properly considered, and this money would be diverted from its proper destination, the lightening of the rates, and turned to some such purpose as this drainage scheme. However, what he desired now was to elicit from the Government a statement of when they would allow this important Report to be discussed, and state what they proposed to do to redeem the pledges of the noble Lord when he held Office as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)
said, he scarcely anticipated that the hon. and gallant Member would have raised a discussion on this question, and the time was not favourable to it. As the hon. and gallant Member was aware, he (Ur. A. J. Balfour) proposed to bring forward the Drainage Bills on Monday, and it would then be his duty to submit the Government proposals on 1846 this point. But he could assure the hon. and gallant Gentleman now that the Government did not propose to allocate any part of the sum to be given for the relief of local taxation in Ireland to drainage purposes. As to the other matters dealt with in the Report of the Royal Commission, he must remind the hon. and gallant Member that in the present condition of Public Business it was not possible to deal with more than this portion of public works. If they succeeded in passing three Drainage Bills, that, he thought, was very well for one Session, and they could hardly be expected to do more.

§ COLONEL NOLAN
Oh, yes. Railways.

§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR
said, if the hon. and gallant Gentleman thought that more could be done than passing three such Bills brought in in the month of July, he was of an extremely sanguine disposition. But he reminded the House that the Commissioners themselves had given some opinion as to the comparative importance of the various subjects on which they reported. Of the three subjects they treated—drainage, harbours, and railways—they were unanimous in placing drainage first. Under these circumstances, the Government did not think they would be justified in running counter to the opinion of the Commissioners, their advisers in the matter; and on that ground the Government had determined to deal with drainage before touching harbours and railways.

§ MR. EDWARD HARRINGTON (Kerry, W.)
said, he appreciated the skill with which the right hon. Gentleman had talked on the matter for a few minutes, and really said nothing about it. He could not agree with the right hon. Gentleman that the Commissioners made any such distinction in the subjects they referred to. Let the right hon. Gentleman read the Report with an Irish eye, and he would not find any such classification as he represented. True, drainage happened to be mentioned first, but not as first in importance. For his own part, he did not much believe in improvement of land by drainage for the Irish landlords, and he hoped some day to convince his hon. Friends that it amounted to taxing the general community for the benefit of a few indivi- 1847 duals. But in the matter of increasing accommodation for the fishing industry, and bringing railways into connection with harbours, there was work that would be of great material benefit to the country. He hoped that the opportunity would come for a more adequate discussion of the subject. He had but 1848 inadequately expressed his own view; but in that respect he had only imitated the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland.