§ 30. Sir PARK GOFFasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether wharves in the port of Rochester can retain their sufferance privileges; and whether arrangements can be made to effect deliveries of timber and other merchandise 539 in the Medway instead of being taken to the Thames wharves and transhipped again to the Medway with additional costs of transport and transhipping charges?
§ Mr. COOPERAs regards the first part of the question, no curtailment of the existing sufferance privileges of wharves in the port of Rochester is in contemplation. As regards the second part of the question, I am not prepared to extend the privileges of the Rochester wharves for the purpose of enabling existing trade, whether in timber or other merchandise, to be withdrawn from privileged wharves elsewhere at which it has hitherto been handled.
§ Sir P. GOFFIs it the policy of the Government to divert all traffic from the Medway to the Thames in future?
§ Mr. COOPERNo, Sir.
§ Commander MARSDENIs the hon. Gentleman aware that this demand for sufferance wharves is not only in the Medway but is greatly desired in the upper reaches of the Thames, and will he receive representations as to this fact and as to the desirability of extending these privileges in many places in the upper reaches of the river?
§ Mr. COOPERI am always glad to receive any representations.