§ MR. M. H. SHAW-STEWART (Renfrew, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade, (1) if he is aware that steamers, carrying Her Majesty's bi-weekly mails and passengers, besides many other vessels, have to navigate the dangerous western coasts of the Orkney and Shetland Islands without a single light to guide them, in latitudes where frequent storms occur, and where, during a great part of the year, there are only about seven hours of daylight; and (2) whether, seeing that there been frequent wrecks on the Veeskerrie reef of rocks, lying three miles out from the Shetland coast, and on the North Shoal, lying nine miles out from the Orkney coast, he will cause a lighthouse to be erected on Noop Head, in the island of Westray, Orkney?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (MR. J. BRYCE, Aberdeen, S.)It can hardly be said that the western coasts of the Orkney and Shetland Islands are entirely unlighted, as there are lights at Dunnet Head and Hoy Sound, on the south-western coast of the Orkneys; moreover, a light, which will be of use to trading vessels in those waters, is now being erected at Sule Skerry, and will, I hope, be lit shortly. As regards the second paragraph, a proposal is before me for the erection of a light, either on Mull Head or on Noop Head, both in the Island of Westray, and I have no doubt that the Board of Trade will shortly be able to sanction one or other alternative.