§ COLONEL COTTON-JODRELL (Cheshire, Wirrall)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been drawn to the discharge of mud hoppers into the Mersey and into adjacent channels thereof, and to the great increase, of late, of stench and of insanitary deposits on the shores at low water adjacent to Seacombe, Egremont, and New Brighton; and whether, if such be the case, he can take steps to cause the dredgings to be discharged in deeper water?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. J. BRYCE, Aberdeen, S.)No complaint of the nature suggested in the question of the hon. Member has reached the Board of Trade, but I understand that the subject to which he refers is engaging the serious and constant attention of the Harbour Authority, and of the Acting Conservator of the Mersey. Apart from the amount of silt dredged from the Docks, which is discharged in the centre of the river, I am informed that the sewage of the large and increasing population named by the hon. Member is discharged on the foreshore of the Mersey considerably above low water mark, which is more likely to produce the inconvenience complained of than the deposit of dredged silt in the centre of the river.