§ SIR JOHN LENG (Dundee)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade—(1) if he can state what sum of money has been spent on the attempts to establish electrical communication with the Fastnet Lighthouse; (2) what is the estimate of further expenditure; and (3) whether he is aware that shipowners consider the improvement of the light on the Fastnet Rock, now seriously defective, would be more beneficial to the shipping engaged between America and the United Kingdom than the frequently interrupted telegraphic communication?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. C. T. RITCHIE,) CroydonThe amount already spent in connecting the Fastnet Lighthouse is about £2,600. The estimate for further expenditure is £850. With regard to the last paragraph of the hon. Member's Question, it will be sufficient for me to state that in November last the Board sanctioned, at an estimated cost of upwards of £64,000, the reconstruction and improvement of the Fastnet light, by substituting for the present apparatus a biform oil light of the most powerful kind. For this work, £17,000 has been included in the Estimates for the current year.