§ (1) The Admiralty may deepen, dredge, scour, cleanse, alter, and improve the bed, shores, and channel of the River Humber adjoining or near the pier for any purpose in connection with the construction and maintenance of the pier, or for the purpose of securing sufficient depth of water at and near the pier, and providing convenient access for vessels to the pier.
§ (2) The Admiralty and the Humber Conservancy Board may enter into agreements for the carrying out of any dredging works authorised by this Section on behalf of the Admiralty by the Board upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed.
§ (3) No materials excavated or dredged under the powers conferred by this Section shall be deposited below high-water mark of ordinary spring tides otherwise than in such places and under such restrictions as the Humber Conservancy Board, with the approval of the Board of Trade, may sanction.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."
§ Mr. BOOTHI want to ask what is the idea of the Admiralty in taking these large powers and spending money in deepening and scouring this river. What is the reason that the river is in such a state? Simply because certain places in the West Biding put such a large amount of sewage into it as to necessitate the proposal of this Clause. Some of the townships along the banks do their duty. I am bound to say that the townships in my constituency do their duty, but there are large townships up stream which say that they cannot purify the effluent flowing into the river because the manufacturers object to have the necessary rates imposed. The River Humber is in a filthy state because they refuse to spend money in doing a public duty. If the public authorities of the West 2048 Riding did their duty in this matter of the purification of the river. [Interruption.] The township which I have the honour to represent has run up the rate to 10s. 8d. in the £. This is a rural parish and is done in order to avoid the necessity of cleansing the river of refuse lower down. If other councils had done their duty in the same way—I do not mean at the same expense—there would not be any necessity for all this dredging, scouring and cleansing that takes place. The melancholy fact in regard to the Humber is that instead of there being an abundance of pure water flowing down the river cleansing out the channel the water coming down from some of these large towns is as black as ink. It is all very well for hon. Members who represent some of these towns to dissent, because they do not want the rates to be raised, but they ought to have consideration for other places lower down the stream.
§ Mr. BOOTHWe are passing this with very great speed. Clause 4 deals with cleansing, dredging, and scouring the channel of the River Humber, and I submit that there will be much more of this work to be done if the river is not kept free from the impurities which come from the manufacturing towns.
§ Mr. BOOTHThe Admiralty cannot do the work without spending money which will fall on the public exchequer, and the expenditure will be larger for the reasons I have given. With regard to Subsection (2), I would like to know with whom are the agreements contemplated—with private firms or with some other Government Department? The meaning of Sub-section (3) I take to be that the material excavated will be taken out beyond the harbour bar, and I would like to know is it intended as far as possible always to go beyond the harbour bar? I should think it would only be, after all, in a case of extreme emergency, that they would put this refuse inside the bar, or somewhere in the estuary. We are entitled to know whether any intimation has been given to the Conservancy Board that this Sub-section (3) will be put in operation, and if so, we should like to know what precedent there is for it.
§ Mr. WATTI ask the Government to give some satisfactory answer to what has been said. We are entitled to have some explanation of what is to be done. The stuff that is dredged should be taken out to sea. On the Clyde it was deposited on the shore around Greenock.
§ Mr. WATTI merely mention that by way of illustration. I think that this system which is proposed on the Humber is a bad one, and that the refuse should be taken right out to sea.