§ MR. DALY (Monaghan, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster-General, whether he is aware that a request has been made by the Dublin and Wicklow Railway Company, Ireland, that the line of railway from Kingstown to Carlisle Pier should be doubled in order to facilitate the dispatch of the mails at Kingstown; and whether, since large sums of money have been expended by the Treasury at Holyhead to give quick discharge to the mails, he will direct that the request of the Dublin and Wicklow Railway be complied with in regard to Kingstown?
§ MR. HANBURYYes, Sir. I understand, however, that the application is mainly based on the necessities of the passenger service (which has largely increased) rather than those of the mail service. The bulk of the land on which it is proposed that the widening should take place is now the private property of the Railway Company; and, before that property was transferred to them by the Government for this very purpose, it was expressly arranged that the State was to bear no part of that expense. If the intention of the Kingstown Township (Transfer of Harbour Roads) Act of last Session had been that the Government should defray the cost of the works there would have been no reason for the transfer of the land. In any case, I do not consider it desirable that the Government should construct such works as these on private property. No money has been spent on private property in the case of Holyhead, to which the honourable Member refers.