§ MR. MOON (St. Pancras, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether a yacht or steam launch was purchased by or for the Sierra Leone Government; and, if so, at what price, and for what object, and at what date.
(Answered by Mr Secretary Chamberlain.) A steam launch was constructed for the Sierra Leone Government by Messrs. J. S. White and Company, of Cowes, at a 219 cost of £4,805. The launch is required for the general services of the colony in the place of the old colonial steamer, which has been condemned as unfit for further use, and it arrived in the colony on the 21st of March. The cost mentioned above is exclusive of the cost of the armament (one Hotchkiss 37 m.m. Q.F. gun and one rifle calibre Maxim gun), which amounted to £594 5s. 11d.