§ MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN (Kilkenny)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the tolls payable to the Treasury on boats and barges-navigating the River Shannon roughly amount to an average charge of £2 per cargo per boat, and that the boats paying these tolls are engaged in carrying foodstuffs and other necessaries of life to one of the poorest districts in Ireland; and whether, in view of the charge of 5s. per steamer which the Treasury proposes to make for the use of the Carlisle, pier at Kingstown by the London and North-Western Railway Company, he will at least assimilate the payments exacted from the boats navigating the Shannon to a maximum of 5s. per boat.
(Answered by Mr. Hobhouse.) The Board of Works inform me that according to the figures available in that Department the average tolls paid on each trip of a boat with cargo on the Shannon Navigation work out at 16s. 4d. The rate of 5s. in Kingstown Harbour does not, however, apply to ships with cargo, but only to ships carrying mails or passengers exclusively.