regulations and customs, which can only be removed by parliament. The Ballast Act gives a right of pre-emption to the Trinity House of all stone and other materials brought as ballast into the Thames. The coasting duty on stone operates as a prohibition to the importation of stone as merchandize; the amount of canal duties payable on merchandize prevents the carriage of road materials on all inland navigations; manure so transported has been protected in most Canal Acts, but road materials have not been considered. Should parliament be pleased to remove these difficulties, the London roads may be rendered independent of the gravel of the country, by a moderate exertion of statistical and mercantile information on the part of the officers employed by the commissioners.
If the Committee understand you right, you give a decided preference to materials thus imported, over the gravel to be found in the neighbourhood of London?—I do.
Is it your opinion, that by proper regulations a sufficient supply of those materials to which you have alluded, could be procured for the whole of the roads in the neighbourhood of London?—Yes, I think there might; because a steady and constant demand, even at a low price, would insure importation, and this demand can only be steady if the roads round London were consolidated under one set of commissioners acting for the whole, and having depôts into which they could receive materials at all times at a fixed price, to be distributed wherever wanted, by an assurance of a ready purchaser; vessels coming in ballast, or not fully loaded, from any place where good road materials were to be procured, would be induced to take on board sufficient to make up their loading; contracts could also be made for flint by the various canals, and upon terms more moderate than the present price of gravel; I am unable to lay before the Committee a detailed plan for supplying the London roads with good and cheap materials, which requires a considerable time and attention in the inquiry.
