§ MR. AINSWORTH (Argyllshire)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury why the grant of £19,601 was made to the Limavady and Dungiven Railway Company, in face of the fact that the company being under an obligation to pay the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway Company 70 per cent, of the receipts for working expenses was incapable of paying interest on the loan; and why, when the Treasury, after foreclosure, sold the line for £2,000 to the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway Company, they did not require that company at once to promote a Bill to confirm the proceedings and to settle at the same time the obligations of the purchasing company in the interests of the public.
(Answered by Mr. Hobhouse.) At the time (1883) when the advance to the Limavady and Dungiven Railway Company was made, it was anticipated that the net receipts of the line, after paying, the proportion due for working expenses to the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway Company, would from the outset suffice to pay the interest and instalment of principal on the Board of Works loan. The Board of Works ultimately, with the consent of the Treasury, sold their interest in the line to the Midland Company subject to the necessary Parliamentary powers being obtained. The Midland Railway Act, 1907, to which the agreement for sale with the Board of Works is scheduled, conferred the 818 necessary powers. The Limavady and Dungiven Railway Acts of 1878 and 1882 remain, however, in full force and apply to the transferred undertaking, and under the second schedule of the agreement, confirmed by and scheduled to the Act of 1907, the Midland Company are obliged at their own expense well and sufficiently to equip, work, manage, and maintain the railway in perpetuity and to afford proper facilities for the traffic of the district.