MR. PATRICK O'BRIENOn behalf of the hon. Member for the St. Patrick Division of Dublin, I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether in the new lighthouse by the Fastnet, near Cape Clear, it is intended to provide oil gas; whether it is intended to use coal gas in the new lighthouse at Blackhead; whether it is admitted that the light of either oil or coal gas is superior to that of electric light in a fog; and whether, seeing that the largest lighthouse in the world is the gas lighthouse on Tory Island on the north-west coast of Ireland, it is intended that that type of light should in future be used in all lighthouses under the control of the Irish Lights Board.
§ * THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. RITCHIE,) CroydonIt is intended to provide a powerful biform oil light at Fastnet and a mineral oil light at Blackhead. I am not prepared to express an opinion on the relative merits of oil or coal gas and electric light. I 70 understand that the Commissioners of Irish Lights do not contemplate extending (at any rate, at present) the Tory Island type of light to all lighthouses under their control.