WEAR VALLEY EXTENSION RAILWAY BILL [Lords.] (Hansard, 16 June 1892)

*THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. J. W. LOWTHER,) Cumberland, Penrith

I gave notice yesterday to oppose the Third Reading of this Bill, but I think if the House will allow me to make a brief statement possibly it may not be necessary for me to take 1261 that course. I represent on the present occasion the Cumberland County Council, and they believe that their interests will be injuriously affected by this railway, which may be so constructed that under no possible circumstances can it be continued to Alston, which is the part of the county specially interested in this matter. If time had been given, the residents in Alston, and not only those in the eastern, but in the western, part of the county would have been able to lay before the Committee an alternative scheme which would have provided through communication from Alston by Wear Head to Stanhope. The Cumberland County Council presented a Petition to be heard by counsel, and they were prepared to show that their interests would be injuriously affected. The referees, however, decided that the Council had no locus standi, and it was my intention yesterday to have appealed from that Court to the House itself; but no doubt, in consequence of the time and circumstances of the Session and the rapidity with which it is necessary to carry Private Bills through their stages, the promoters had their Bill passed as unopposed yesterday morning; and, consequently, when I rose here yesterday for the purpose I have described, I found the Bill had already been reported to the House, and, therefore, it was impossible to refer the Petition of the Cumberland County Council to the Committee. Yet I feel bound to say that the County Council of Cumberland do feel that their interests may be very seriously affected if it should be found impossible to carry on the line from Alston by Wear Head to Stanhope; and I should like to ask the hon. Baronet (Sir Joseph Pease), who takes so much interest in the railway system of Cumberland and Durham, whether he is prepared to give an undertaking that he will use his best influence to facilitate the endeavours that no doubt will be made in that district of Cumberland to procure a through line from Alston to Stanhope? If he will give such an undertaking as I have reason to believe he will be inclined to do, then I think I need trouble the House no further.

§ *(3.15.) SIR JOSEPH PEASE (Durham, Barnard Castle)

I am much 1262 obliged to the hon. Gentleman for the way in which he has waived his opposition. In laying out the line originally we had in view going forward to Alston, but subsequently we thought that one step at a time would be all we would be able to take. In the laying out of the line Mr. Wolfe Barry, the most eminent railway engineer of the day, was consulted, and under his instructions the line is projected in a way that will in the future allow it to be continued to Alston. All I can say, as an humble individual not pledging any company, but so far as I have any influence, I shall be happy to lend any aid I can to develop the communication in this direction and the idea the promoters had in the inception of the scheme. I can assure the hon. Gentleman our line is laid out so that it can be continued to Alston at some future date, and I will take care that the arrangements made are practically carried out.