MR. T. M. HEALYI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if the Board of Works will be requested to make the Chapelizod Gate of the Phœnix Park practicable for ingress and egress by cyclists; whether, as the University Boat Club have now spent a large sum on the Liffey, and the Park Road commands a view of their course, the trees on the edge of the park could without injury be trimmed so as to increase public enjoyment by enabling river practice to be 1206 better witnessed from the park; if it would be possible to make a road west of the cricket grounds in the park from the main road to that skirting the river, so that the steep hills by the magazine could be avoided; and if attention has been called to the constant straying of young cattle on to the park roads this summer?
§ MR. HANBURYThe Chapelizod Gate is at present available for cyclists from six in the morning to 11 at night. It could not be made available during the night (as two other gates are) without posting a night watchman to prevent loss of deer and cattle. At present about half the rowing course can be viewed from suitable positions on the Park Road. In order to give a more extended view, it would be necessary not merely to trim, but to cut down, a considerable number of handsome thorns and behead many others. This could not be done without injury to the beauty of the park. The road suggested in the third paragraph would cross the ground constantly used for military exercises. No complaints have reached the board of inconvenience from the hills near the magazine, or of accidents caused by them, and they have no reason to believe that there is any general desire for such a road as is proposed. The park servants have directions to turn cattle off the roads and pathways whenever found there, but it would be impossible to prevent the occurrence altogether unless all the grass were to be fenced in, or a very large number of additional attendants employed for the purpose of keeping the roads clear. There are about 25 miles of roads and pathways in the park, and the board have received no previous complaints on the subject.