§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he has read the letter of the Liverpool Steam Ship Owners' Association, representing the Cunard, White Star, and other great ocean lines, which appears at page 21 of the recently issued Return on Lighthouse Illuminants, and the Report of Captain Bragg to which they refer, respecting the performance of Mr. Wigham's new lighthouse gas light and giant lens, wherein it is stated that the adoption of such a light as the Giant Lens Lighthouse Light and a powerful fog syren on the Old Head of Kinsale would materially increase the safety of the navigation to the mail steamers and other vessels which 879 have to make Queenstown a port of call; and whether he will direct the attention of the Commissioners of Irish Lights to it, and to the large amount of corroborative testimony which the Return contains, with the view of their carrying out the request of the Liverpool Steam Ship Owners' Association, and others, that the Giant Lens Lighthouse Light may be placed upon the Old Head of Kinsale?
§ MR. MUNDELLAYes, Sir; I have read the letter referred to in the first paragraph, and a copy of the correspondence has been sent to the Irish Lights Commissioners. It is not the province of the Board of Trade to initiate expenditure out of the Mercantile Marine Fund, or to favour the claims of one inventor in preference to those of others. If the Commissioners make a proposal to me, in the statutory manner, I will take care that it is fully considered.
§ MR. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the improvements in the light at the Old Head of Kinsale, being the substitution of a ten-wick burner in lieu of a four-wick, and the fog signal which the Board of Trade, in their letter of the 2nd November last (Parliamentary Paper No. 92, 1893, page 24), informed the Liverpool Steam Ship Owners' Association they had sanctioned, are to be considered as an adequate satisfaction of the requirements of such Association, as stated in their letter to the Board of the 24th October, 1892; and whether the Board of Trade will move the Commissioners of Irish Lights to take stops to remedy the still existing defects of which the Liverpool Steam Ship Owners' Association complain, by the adoption of the suggestions of their adviser, Captain Bragg?
§ MR. MUNDELLAThis is a matter for the discretion of the Commissioners of Irish Lights. As I have already stated, in my answer to the hon. Member for South Tyrone, if the Commissioners make a proposal in the statutory manner I will take care that it is fully considered.