§ MR. PINKERTONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that the sum of £45,000, borrowed by the Galway Harbour Commissioners from the Board of Works for the purpose of improving their harbour, was advanced by that Board after careful examination and full approval of the plans and specifications submitted by Mr. Price, C.E., and that resolution, passed by the Harbour Board in favour of carrying out these new works, was only carried by a majority of one; if, after an expenditure of £45,000, a deep dock was constructed without an entrance channel, the water in the dock being 10 feet deeper than in the channel outside; and if, seeing that the port has derived no benefit from this expenditure, and as the Board of Works approved of and are responsible for everything that was done in the harbour, the Government will consider the advisability of either expending a further sum to deepen the entrance channel so as to complete the works as at first designed, or relieve the port from the burthen of this debt?
§ MR. JACKSONI am not aware by what majority the Galway Harbour Board agreed to the execution of the works of improvement which they themselves initiated. The Board of Works only approved the plans submitted by the engineer to the Harbour Board so far as they affected the security for the loan which they were asked to advance, and a loan of £28,000 to be supplemented from the funds of the Harbour Board was advanced in 1880. During the execution of the works the Harbour Board, without consulting the Board of Works, enlarged the area of the dock. Owing to this the funds available proved insufficient; a further loan of £8,100 was granted by the Treasury with great reluctance. I cannot admit that any responsibility attaches to the Board of Works.