SHANNON WATER AND ELECTRIC POWER BILL. (Hansard, 23 July 1900)

* THE EARL OF MAYO
My Lords, before the motion that the Bill be read a second time is put, I should like to say a few words with regard to this Bill. When the Bill first came before the House of Commons the scheme was a fairly good one, but now it has been completely altered. Under the Bill the promoters are enabled to take water from the river Shannon by means of a canal to enable them to generate electricity and supply electrical energy within a circuit of thirty miles from the commencement of the works. But before they can abstract any water from the river they have to make a weir, the exact situation of which is not decided upon, and cannot be until fresh plans are deposited. They cannot take property to make a weir until they have been to Parliament again, and they cannot take a drop of water until this weir has been constructed. If the Bill passes the company can, under the provisions of Clause 24, proceed, as soon as they have £10,000 capital subscribed, and,£2,000 of that sum paid up, to put in force the compulsory powers of the Bill by taking land. Thus, although they may never receive Parliamentary sanction to their future scheme, and consequently never take water, they can proceed at once to insure land with only £2,000 capital in hand. In the present session there are several Bills promoted with the view of authorising the erection of generating stations and the supply of electricity in bulk, but in these Bills the promoters are coming into extensive districts or areas of supply, where local authorities and companies are already established for supplying electricity, or where there are fields of industry already on foot which would provide customers for taking a supply. In this Bill, however, the area of supply is restricted to a small piece of land in a country parish 790 adjacent to the Shannon, where no industries exist, and the same area of land which is provided as the area for supplying power is provided for their generating stations. It is true that by Clause 10 the promoters take power to supply by agreement electricity in bulk to any local authority, company, or person, whose districts, undertakings, factories, mills, or industries are situate within a circuit of thirty miles from the commencement of Work No. 1, but there are no powers in the Bill for carrying mains through intervening districts to reach such authorities, companies, or persons, and the provision is therefore unworkable. Moreover, no proper provision is made for compensating the riparian owners for loss of water. The fishing industries of the Shannon are one of the great features of Ireland, and produce a rental of some considerable value. If the powers are granted which are asked for by this Bill the loss will be considerable to those employed in these industries, to private owners, and to the community generally. Further, in addition to the interference with existing industries connected with the fisheries there will be a serious interference with the navigation of the river Shannon. I trust your Lordships will not agree to the Second Reading of the Bill.

LORD LURGAN
My Lords, I do not intend to detain your Lordships long on this Bill, and had it not been for the very unusual course of procedure adopted by the noble Earl, that of asking your Lordships to reject the Bill on Second Reading, I should have had very little to say. I shall, however, endeavour to convince your Lordships that the proper course in connection with this Bill is that it shall be referred to a Committee. The object of the Bill is to utilise the redundant waters of the River Shannon for the generation of electric current or energy for the use of undertakings, factories, mills, electric tramways, lighting, and other industries situated within the City of Limerick and the district which surrounds it. The River Shannon, as is well known, is the largest river in the United Kingdom, having a drainage area of some 4,500 square miles, and discharging for the greater portion of the year a great-volume of water, which for centuries has been running to waste. The works are extremely simple, and present no engineer- 791 ing difficulty. The great power station, where some 8,000 horse-power will be developed, will be situated at Clonlara, distant only about four and a half miles from the City of Limerick, which contains a population of some 36,000 people-Limerick is a seaport possessing great natural advantages for trade and commerce, being situate fifty miles inland on the finest navigable river in the United Kingdom, having deep-water docks, extensive quays, and several systems of railway converging upon them from all parts of the country, as well as water carriage by means of the Grand Canal to Dublin. The noble Lord said there were no large industries which would use the electrical power. I differ from him. The largest bacon factories in Ireland are here, as well as the biggest condensed milk factory in the United Kingdom, and the largest flour mills operating in any city in Ireland. There are saw mills, tanneries, and numerous other industries, all of which require the use of steam power. Limerick, however, being on the West Coast of Ireland, suffers greatly from the fact that it has to pay a very high price for imported coal. Thus, the existing industries are greatly handicapped, while the starting of new factories cannot be contemplated in view of the serious difficulties arising from the high cost of producing power. It is to remedy this state of things that the present undertaking has been brought before Parliament. Ireland possesses little or no coal, but has a considerable amount of water power, which, if properly utilised as in other countries, may largely tend to the development of its industries and the employment of its people. Both Italy and Switzerland are countries possessing no coal, but, like Ireland, they have the great advantage of possessing the cheapest form of power — namely, water power. By the fostering care of the Government and the energy of the people, these two countries have overcome the difficulties arising from the want of coal, and are now rapidly becoming large manufacturing centres. It is needless to refer to the vast developments which have taken place in America and Canada, where water power is used so fully for electrical development applicable to all manufacturing uses. The idea of utilising the waste water power of the Shannon dates back to the time when Sir Robert Kane pointed out the great advantage 792 that would occur to the whole country, from an industrial point of view, if the water power of this great river was properly employed. The case before Parliament is very different from that where water is abstracted from the river and carried away never to be returned again to its original source. Here a portion only—after the fullest allowance has been made for maintaining a great river twice the size of the Thames at Teddington, always flowing down the natural course before any water is abstracted—is utilised for driving the turbines, a supplemental steam plant being provided to meet the possible emergency of a dry summer. The Bill provides that under no circumstances shall any water be abstracted from the river unless and until 90,000 cubic feet a minute, equal to 800,000,000 gallons a day, is passing down the river between the inlet and outlet of the proposed works loading to and from the turbines. At the outlet the whole water is again returned, so that from this point to the sea the river remains absolutely as it was before; and here it is that the valuable fisheries of the Shannon exist. The whole value of the Shannon Fisheries is given as £40,000 a year, but the value of the portion of the river between the inlet and the outlet for which the 90,000 cubic feet a minute is provided is only given by the opponents of the Bill as £2,500 a year. The strongest evidence has been given that with the large flow provided under the clauses of the Board of Works and the Fishery Board no injury will be sustained, but the Bill provides the usual clauses for safeguarding the interests of any persons proved to be injuriously affected; and if the Bill is sent to the Committee in the usual way every opportunity will be afforded to those represented in the solitary petition that remains against the preamble to prove their case. When the Bill was first introduced some six petitions were lodged against it. The most important of these was the petition of the Public Board of Works in Ireland, who, under Act of Parliament, are the custodians of the River Shannon throughout its entire course from Lough Allen to the sea, a distance of some 150 miles, their especial duty being the maintenance of the navigation and the regulations of the floods for drainage purposes. Allied with them 793 to a large extent were the inspectors of Irish fisheries, also constituted by Act of Parliament and now incorporated into the Irish Agricultural Board, presided over by the Chief Secretary and the Right Hon. Horace Plunkett. These two Government bodies having the charge of the navigation and the fisheries considered with the greatest care the project now before Parliament as affecting the questions of navigation and fisheries, and, after several months of negotiation, clauses of a very stringent character were put forward in the joint interests of the two bodies, accepted by the promoters, and embodied in the Bill. By these clauses it is provided that no water shall be taken from the river until the 90,000 cubic feet, before referred to, passes over the weir situated below the proposed intake of the canal, and, further, that the Board of Works shall have the right to shut down the sluices on the promoter's canal the moment a less quantity than 90,000 cubic feet a minute is passing down the river. Numerous other clauses have been embodied giving power to the Board of Works and the Fishery Board to control the regulating weir and sluices, to provide such openings for salmon, eels, and other fish as they may deem requisite, and to oblige the promoters to put up such screens at the inlet and outlet as may be thought desirable. Thus in every manner the fullest precautions have been taken by the two public Departments to safeguard the public interests. Of the other petitions, that of next importance was the petition of the Corporation of Limerick for the protection of their waterworks, but here, again, after the most careful investigation and a report made to the corporation by a very experienced waterworks engineer, that body came to the conclusion that it was in the best interests of the city that the project should be carried out. They have, in fact, settled clauses and sealed a petition in favour of the Bill, and will appear before the Committee of your Lordships' House to support it in every way in their power. In like manner the Harbour Board of Limerick have sealed a petition in favour, and by glancing at the statement made by the promoters it will be observed that twenty-three bodies, including the county councils of Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary, all the district councils in the proposed area of supply, the boards of guardians and 794 numerous other bodies have sealed petitions or passed resolutions, in almost every case unanimously urging upon Parliament the desirability of passing the Bill. It is significant that the Commissioners of Public Works have absolutely petitioned your Lordships' House against alterations, and paragraph 3 of that petition recites that— During the passage of the Bill through the House of Commons, clauses were introduced for the protection of the petitioners, and your petitioners are content with the Bill as the same is now settled. They beg that no alteration should be made, and that the Bill should pass into law as it now stands, showing that they, as representing not only themselves, but as acting in concert with the Fishery Board, are fully satisfied that the promoters have agreed to every reasonable condition. It would, therefore, seem in the public interest that the unusual course adopted by the opponents to destroy the Bill on the Second Heading, after it has passed every stage in the House of Commons, should be resisted by your Lordships' House, and that no narrow view or petty interest should be allowed to stand in the way of a project which must confer lasting benefits on the whole community.

* LORD MASSY
My Lords, as one of the riparian owners and an owner of Shannon fisheries I have great pleasure in supporting my noble friend's motion to reject the Bill. If this Bill becomes law a large portion of a very important spawning bed between Limerick and Castle Connell will be left high and dry at the most critical time of the year—namely, from 1st November to 1st February, when the fish are spawning. The other portion of the spawning bod will have so little water flowing over it that it will be perfectly impossible for heavy salmon to spawn. Not only rod fishing, but the fisheries in general all along the Shannon, will be interfered with by this Bill. The noble Lord said the water will be all returned. True, but between the inlet and the outlet there are several miles of river that will be left practically dry. The noble Lord said the promoters proposed to place their generating station at Clonlara, and to transmit electricity from there to the principal works in Limerick; but, as a matter of fact, not a single one 795 of those mercantile works has applied for electrical energy, knowing perfectly well that they can work their machinery, as they do now, by steam at a much less cost for power than would be the case if they used electricity. The noble Lord said the Fishery Board has supported this Bill. They may have done so, but they have withheld their Report, which looks very much as if the Reports of the Fishery Inspectors were dead against it.

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (The Earl of MORLEY)
My Lords, I think the House, after having heard the speeches that have been delivered, will have come to the conclusion, without a shadow of a doubt, that this Bill ought not to be stopped at the Second Reading. The Bill is one for a very large commercial enterprise. It has passed through the House of Commons, it was fought in Committee there, and it is extremely unusual, I may say quite unparalleled, that it should be thrown out on Second Heading. I am surprised that the noble Earl should have adopted the unusual course of asking the House to reject it at this stage. I do not think it is necessary for me to say anything more, but I hope your Lordships will give the Bill a Second Reading and allow it to go to Committee.