§ MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)To ask the President of the Board of Trad if he will say on what representations, if any, the Board of Trade has allowed the Midland Great Western Railway Company to encroach upon and appropriate to railway uses portion of the towing bank of the Royal Canal at Mullingar, to a length of 396 yards; and, if this is irregular, will he have the work now in progress suspended pending due inquiry and notice to the public interested in the canal.
(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) The Board of Trade have had no representations with regard to this matter, and have no power to take the action suggested by the hon. Member.
§ MR. GINNELLTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland by what authority and on whose report, if any, has the Midland Great Western Railway Company been allowed to erect a fence 396 yards in length on the towing bank of the Royal Canal at Mullingar, enclosing and appropriating to railway uses land belonging to the canal: if he is aware that this canal was constructed in the eighteenth century mainly with money voted by the Irish Parliament, and that the railway company, while bound to maintain the canal navigable, discourage its use as a rival goods thoroughfare; what inquiry was 1226 held, or opportunity given to the public for whose use the canal was constructed, to resist the application for power to alienate the land of the canal; what money has the railway company paid for the land, and to whom; and, if the land has not been properly acquired by the railway company, will he order its immediate restoration to its legitimate purpose pending local public inquiry.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) I am informed by the Board of Control of the Royal Canal that the fences referred to were erected by the railway company some time since. No complaint of obstruction or inconvenience to the navigation by reason of the fencing has reached the Board. Ample land has been left for the purposes of canal traffic. The construction of the canal was begun in the 18th century by a company incorporated in 1789, and the cost was defrayed mainly by public subscriptions amounting to about £1,000,000, and partly by Parliamentary grants amounting to some £360,000, of which about £90,000 was granted by the Irish Parliament and the remainder after the Union. The canal was completed by the Commissioners of Inland Navigation and handed over to a new company by the Act 58 Geo. III., c. 35 (1818). The lands of the canal company were vested in the Midland Great Western Railway Company by the Act 8 and 9 Vict., c. CXIX. (1845). There is no doubt that the land belongs to the railway company, but they are bound in using it to have proper regard to the interests of the navigation; and the Board of Control exercise their function of securing that this statutory duty is discharged by the railway company.