§ MR. MOONTo ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has any official reports showing that no steamers, but only small lighters at low water, are able to use the pier at Secondee recently completed at the cost of £26,887, and whether a crane at the end of the pier is so built that it cannot lift boilers or other heavy pieces of railway material on to the trucks on the pier; and will he say by whose advice a pier was constructed where it is.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain.) The pier at Secondee was constructed for the use of small steamers and lighters whose draught does not exceed five feet, and such vessels are able to use it. There are four cranes on the pier, three of which can now and always could lift boilers or other heavy articles up to four tons in weight, direct into trucks; and the fourth crane (a ten-ton one), which could originally only lift boilers or other articles of exceptional bulk on to the deck of the pier, has since been raised fire feet, thus enabling it to lift them on to the trucks. The pier was constructed where it is by the advice of Messrs. Coode, Son, and Matthews, the well-known engineers.