MR. GINNE.LL (Westmeath, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can now state the names of the present members of the Board of Control of the Royal Canal, and the dates of their appointment; do they receive any salary; how do they explain their having allowed the canal to be rendered unnavigable by the Midland Great Western Railway Company; are they or any of them shareholders in that company; under what authority do they allow that company to stop traffic on the canal and endanger the water supply of Mullingar; under what authority do they allow the company to erect gates across the towing path and derive revenue from grass growing on the canal banks; is he aware that Thomas Kelly, boatman, was summoned and fined at Mullingar petty sessions on the 12th instant for having allowed his horse to graze on the canal bank while discharging his boat, one of the magistrates being Captain Gloster, a near relative of Colonel Smythe, Midland Railway director, with whom he resides; and is it proposed to put the control of this canal in the hands of men interested in its restoration and preservation?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. BRYCE,) Aberdeen, S.The Board of Control of the Royal Canal at present consists of the Commissioners of public works in Ireland, namely, Messrs. Holmes (Chairman), Stevenson, and Hanson, who were appointed in the years 1901, 1902, and 1903, respectively. These gentlemen do not receive salary as members of the Board of Control, and none of them is a shareholder in the railway company. The canal as a whole is not unnavigable, although the depth of water in places is less than it is assumed to have been when the canal was taken over by the railway company. Numerous works of maintenance and improvement have been carried out by the company, at the instance of the Board of Control, during the last ten years. The Board have persistently pressed the company to increase the depths. They have given no authority to the company to stop the traffic or to endanger the water 79 supply of Mullingar, and the Company deny that the water supply is, in fact, endangered. The Board were informed by the Company in 1895 that the gates and barriers on the towing paths had been removed. The Board's authority is not required to enable the Company to sell the grass on the canal banks. I am informed that Kelly was recently fined on two occasions for the trespass of his two horses on the canal banks, but the prosecution was not at the suit of the Railway Company but of the lessee of the owner, Lord Greville. I have already informed the hon. Member that the constitution and powers of the Board of Control are under consideration, and I am not yet in a position to make a further statement on the subject.