§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Lord Advocate if the Secretary for Scotland will consider the advisability of instructing the consulting engineer for the Congested Districts Board to report as to the best site for a harbour in Broad Bay, Isle of Lewis, and the cost of construction?
MR. GRAHAM MURRAYThe Western Highlands and Islands Commission of 1890, one of the members of which was Sir J. Wolfe Barry, a distinguished engineer, reported that the most suitable site for a harbour in Broad Bay was at Portnaguiran, and that the cost of such a harbour would be about £30,000, a sum greatly in excess of anything the Congested Districts Board can ever give. The Secretary for Scotland therefore cannot undertake to make such a demand on the time of a fully-employed officer as to call on Colonel Gore-Booth to prepare plans and estimates for so extensive a work, in view of the unlikelihood of its being carried out. Within the last few years a pier has been built we the other side of Broad Bay, just about six miles from Portnaguiran, at a cost of £1,900, of which Government gave £1,625.