§ MR. MACFARLANE (Argyll)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that the Clyde Lighthouse Trustees, notwithstanding that the deposit of filthy dredgings from Glasgow and the Clyde generally has been prohibited, continue to deposit the dredgings of Greenock and Port Glasgow in Loch Long; whether this action, on the part of the Trustees, has the sanction of the Board of Trade; whether he has received Petitions from fishermen and others praying for protection; and what course he proposes to adopt?
§ MR. MUNDELLAComplaints have recently been received by me on the subject referred to by the hon. Member. By statutory powers the Clyde Lighthouse Trustees are authorised to improve, deepen, dredge and widen the navigable channel of the Clyde within certain specified limits, and to deposit the stuff dredged in the contiguous lochs or sea. The Act in question was passed in 1880, and will expire in 1895. No sanction has been applied for, and none has been given by the Board of Trade.
§ MR. MACFARLANEIs it not in the power of the Board of Trade to prevent persons depositing unclean matter in any of the lochs? Is the only resource for the inhabitants either death from disease or an expensive action at law?
§ MR. MUNDELLAThe Board of Trade cannot over-ride an Act of Parlia- 776 ment which was granted 13 years ago. When it expires, the Board will interfere in the matter.
§ MR. MACFARLANEDo the powers of the Clyde Lighthouse Trustees apply to the docks at Greenock and at the Port of Glasgow?
§ MR. MUNDELLAThey apply within certain areas. I cannot now say what those areas are.