§ MR. LLEWELLYN (Somerset, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the Bristol Pilotage Authority have raised any objection to the application made to the Board of Trade by the Bristol pilots for a Provisional Order under "The Merchant Shipping Act (Pilotage) Act, 1889,"making provision for the direct representation of the pilots on the Pilotage Committee of the Authority; and, if so, on what grounds?
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Sir M. HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.The Bristol Pilotage Authority, to whom the general application of the Bristol pilots for a Provisional Order was, in pursuance of the Act, referred, have replied generally that the application of the pilots seems to point to the constitution of a new Pilotage Authority, upon which the pilots, and, if it seems expedient, shipowners also may have direct representation; and that if the Provisional Order to exempt vessels from being obliged to employ pilots in a part of the Bristol pilotage district for which the Corporation have applied becomes law, the Corporation would not object to the establishment of a new Pilotage Authority, provided the interests of the city are sufficiently represented thereon, and that provision is made for the expenses of such Authority from some other source than the Borough Fund, from which all the expenses of the present Authority are paid. The Draft Provisional Order in which the specific proposals of the pilots are embodied has, however, been only very recently received from them, and sufficient time has not yet elapsed to obtain the definite observations or objections of the Pilotage Authority thereon.