§ SIR THOMAS SUTHERLAND (Greenock)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the Board of Trade has the power to cause 1313 the inquiry now proceeding under Section 189 of the Thames Conservancy Act 1894, as to the practicability and expediency of improving the navigation of the Thames and the estuary thereof," to be extended to the whole of the river as far upwards as London Bridge, in place of the limits fixed by the Act, that is to say, from the Nore Lightship to Thorney Creek; and whether, if the Board of Trade have the power, they will exercise it?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. J. BRYCE,) Aberdeen, S.The Board have no power to extend the inquiry to which the hon. Member alludes. The Admiralty, having re-surveyed the limits fixed by Section 189 of the Thames Conservancy Act 1894, are now engaged in examining the shoal patches between Thorney Creek and Gravesend. The Conservators of the Thames are also making a survey of the river above Gravesend. These surveys and examination, when completed, will be placed before the Commissioners who are holding the inquiry referred to.