§ Mr. GIBSON BOWLESasked the President of the Board of Trade how it is intended to provide the proposed new fund for the retirement of Elder Brethren of the Trinity from active service, and especially whether it is proposed to provide this fund out of the property possessed by the corporation of Trinity House itself, or out of any other, and, if so, what property; in particular, is it proposed to provide any portion of it out of the light dues; and will His Majesty's Government consider, before recommending His Majesty to grant the supplemental charter to the Trinity House, the desirability of transferring the duties of lighting, buoying, and erecting beacons on the whole coasts of the United Kingdom to one body better adapted than the Trinity House to the performance of such duties?
§ The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of TRADE (Mr. Sydney Buxton)It is proposed that the number of the Elder Brethren engaged in active duties shall be somewhat reduced, and that the fund in ques- 776 tion shall be constituted by contributions from Elder Brethren out of the annual sum of £7,000 to which they are entitled by statute as remuneration for the duties they discharge in connection with lighthouses. This sum is provided out of the General Lighthouse Fund, but the scheme will not involve any additional charge on that fund. The question of the administration of lighthouses, etc., was fully inquired into by a Royal Commission which reported in 1908. I am not prepared to propose legislation to transfer the duties to any other body.
§ Mr. GIBSON BOWLESIs it proposed to divert £7,000 of this fund to a different purpose from that to which it has hitherto been applied?
§ Mr. BUXTONIt was thought best to utilise the money in this way.