The State Harbours Bill contains four essential points. The first point is to vest the Dun Laoghaire and the Dunmore Harbours in the Commissioners of Public Works. The second point is to enable such tolls and dues as may be approved by the Government to be charged at those and any other harbours controlled by the Commissioners of Public Works, without regard to existing statutory conditions. The third point is to apply to all such harbours certain useful provisions of the Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act of 1847, which is a codifying Act making all sorts of regulations about harbours. The fourth point is to change the name of Kingstown Harbour to Dun Laoghaire Harbour.
When Kingstown Harbour was constructed under a series of Acts beginning in 1815, and when Dunmore Harbour was reconstructed under an Act of 1818, each of them was vested in Commissioners, not more than five in number, to be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. It proved convenient for the Lord Lieutenant to appoint the individuals, who were from time to time Commissioners of Public Works, to be Commissioners of both those harbours, because the Commissioners of Public Works had to maintain the harbours out of public funds, and it was obviously convenient for the same body to manage the harbours and maintain them. Though the Commissioners of Public Works are actually the same persons as the Commissioners of Kingstown and Dunmore Harbours, they are not legally the same. The Commissioners of these harbours are theoretically and legally two separate bodies; they can be sued separately; they are incorporated as the Commissioners of Public Works are. The legal and practical line of division between their duties as owners and managers of these harbours, and their duty in maintaining the harbours, is a line which is hard to draw, and this leads to some practical inconvenience.
As regards the tolls and dues there is a point of importance involved. Originally it was contemplated that the sum charged would bear some relation to the number of trips of the mail boat. It was calculated at that time that there would be about six trips in the year, but now the trips are taken twice daily, practically. At present the income derived from Dun Laoghaire harbour is something about £1,800, and in the last year there was a sum of £300 or £400 of that arrears from the previous year. In the case of the Dublin Port and Docks Board the charge would be something about 7d. or 7¼d. per ton of the actual nett tonnage. It was that up to some time ago. If based on the charge which would be made in the ordinary way at the Dublin Harbour proper, what should be charged for the mail boat would be somewhere about £40,000. That is what those passenger boats would pay in dues if the same rates ruled at Dun Laoghaire as rule at Dublin.
The various charges that are made in other harbours are as follows:—
Belfast—3½d. (less 5 per cent.)
Londonderry—3¾d.
Larne—3¾d. (plus 1¼d. per passenger).
Glasgow—5d. (less 5 per cent.)
Bristol—6d. (plus 10 per cent.)
Fishguard—4d. (plus 6 per cent.)
The actual cost of the upkeep of Dun Laoghaire Harbour amounts to over £20,000 in the year. It is more than likely, within the next few years, if any reconstruction work has to be done there—and it is necessary there should be—a very considerable expenditure of money will have to be made. It appears that the boats now used by the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway Company are much larger, and, in consequence, they do a good deal more damage.
