HC Deb 09 August 1898 vol 64 c652
MR. PIRIE

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if he will consider the advisability of placing the Northern. Lights Commissioners and Scottish Meteorological Society and other bodies similarly situated in Scotland on a satisfactory footing by supplying them with the necessary funds by direct vote of the Imperial Parliament?

THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)

I would remind the honourable Member that the Northern Lights Commissioners are the lighthouse authorities for Scotland, and that their financial relations with the Board of Trade are not verbally different from those of the Trinity House, Which is the lighthouse authority for England. The Scotch Meteorological Society, like the English Meteorological Society, obtains no direct aid from the State. The Meteorological Council, which has the spending of the Government grant, is representative of both countries, and I have no reason to think that the council is at all disposed to neglect the interests of Scotland.

MR. PIRIE

May I ask if it is not the case that the funds for the Northern Lights Commissioners are given through the Trinity House, an English body?

THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY

I am not sure how that is, but in any case the financial relations of the two countries are substantially the same. The financial relations between Trinity House and the Treasury are the same as those between the Northern Lights Commissioners and the Treasury.