§ SIR WILLIAM BULL (Hammersmith)To ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies on what grounds the Colonial Office have again refused to confirm the proposals of the British Honduras Legislature for the construction of a railway to the western frontier of that colony; and whether he will lay upon the Table Mr. Shelford's Survey and Report to the Crown Agents which the Honduras Legislature have refused to entertain.
(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) Lord Elgin has not felt able, under existing circumstances, to sanction a subsidy to a proposal made to the British Honduras Legislature, and provisionally entertained by them, for the construction of a railway to the western frontier of the Colony, because, with other works of development on hand or in view and with the prospect of a considerable loan being required to carry out those works, his Lordship is of opinion that the Colony cannot undertake further obligations at the present time. This is apart from the merits or demerits of the scheme, which is only one of many of a similar nature which have been put forward from time to time. Mr. Shelford's Report, which was made in 1896, is now necessarily to some extent out of date; it can be seen at the Colonial Office library, but there would be no sufficient justification for incurring the expense of printing it for Parliament.