§ Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee, read.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (Earl CARRINGTON)My Lords, I have a somewhat lengthy list of Amendments to this Bill, but they are purely verbal. If it is desired that they should be taken seriatim I will adopt that course. As, however, they are purely verbal, it may be convenient that I should move them all together. Should any noble Lord desire information regarding them I should be very glad to give it; but if it is the pleasure of the House, I will move the Amendments en bloc when we get into Committee.
§ Moved, "That the House do now resolve itself into the said Committee."—(Earl Carrington.)
THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (The Earl of ONSLOW)My Lords, before the House goes into Committee on this Bill I should like to express to the noble Earl my gratitude for his having courteously considered a number of suggestions that were put before him by the Central Land Association, of which I am chairman. We pointed out a number of matters in which we thought the Bill did not quite reproduce the existing law in the state in which it now is, and the noble Earl was good enough, in accordance with the promise he gave to your Lordships when the Bill was read a second time, to do his utmost—and I think he has completely satisfied us—to carry out that condition. There is only one matter to which I would wish to draw the attention of the 896 noble Earl—namely, Clause 42 of the Bill. That clause deals with the application of the Market Gardeners Compensation Act. The law as it at present stands makes provision that the application of the Act should continue only until the first day on which either the landlord or the tenant of such tenancy should close and determine the tenancy. Under the Bill, as amended, it seems to me that the landlord might be liable for claims for market gardeners' improvements, not only as at present made before the termination of the tenancy by tenants-under leases, but which might have been determined by a notice that would have expired on January 1st, 1896. I do not propose to move any Amendment at this stage, but I would ask the noble Earl to kindly look into that point, with the assistance of his legal advisers, and see whether the Bill as it stands does carry out exactly what is the existing state of the law. Subject to that I think your Lordships can very well adopt the Amendments standing in the name of the noble Earl.
§ EARL CARRINGTONI need hardly say I shall be pleased to do as the noble Earl wishes, and I will refer to the matter again on Report.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ House in Committee accordingly.
§ [The Earl of ONSLOW in the Chair.]
§ Verbal Amendments agreed to, and Bill reported with Amendments to the House; Standing Committee negatived.
§ Report of Amendments to be received to-morrow; and Bill to be printed as amended.