§ THE EARL OF MUNSTERMy Lords, I beg to move, That the Special Order, as reported from the Special Orders Committee on Wednesday last, be approved. I think your Lordships will probably desire me to state quite briefly the necessity and the reason for this Motion, which stands in my name on the Order paper. Noble Lords will recall that at the end of last Session Parliament approved and passed the Coal Act, which, amongst its many other provisions, provided for the acquisition of all the coal in this country. As part of the machinery for valuation, the Third Schedule to the Act set up a Central Valuation Board and it will be recalled that its Chairman was to be appointed by my right honourable friend the President of the Board of Trade after consultation with the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack. We have been fortunate in securing the services of the noble Marquess opposite, Lord Reading, as Chairman of that Board, and it will interest your Lordships to know that the two other independent members of that Board are Sir Laurence Halsey and Mr. E. H. N. Ryde. There will also be one person in respect of each valuation region.
Under paragraph 14 of the Third Schedule, this Central Valuation Board were to draw up Rules as to the procedure 664 to be followed by the Regional Valuation Boards, and after those Draft Rules had received the approval of my right honourable friend, they had then to be submitted for an affirmative Resolution of both Houses of Parliament. The House will, therefore, observe that these Rules have been formulated by the Central Valuation Board, and are not, therefore, in any way whatever concerned with the activities of the Coal Commission as such. It is these very Rules that are incorporated in the Draft Order which is before your Lordships' House for which sanction is now sought. I am prepared to admit that the forms attached to the Rules are of a highly technical character, but they have been drawn up by this body which consists of a lawyer, of an auditor, and of a surveyor, and ten of the most expert mineral valuers in the country, and this Resolution is one which I confidently submit to your Lordships' House.
As noble Lords will be aware, the Special Orders Committee's Report draws attention to the fact that the question whether the Rules are intra vires was raised in the Special Orders Committee. I think the question turned upon the interpretation of the first part of Clause 7, subsection (4), of the Coal Act. The interpretation of this provision adopted for the purposes of the Rules is that the purchaser must consider as on the valuation date what the property will be worth on the vesting date; on the other hand, the view was submitted that the proper value is that at the valuation date without taking any account of the fact that the property does not pass for three and a half years. As a matter of construction, this view is really untenable and gives no meaning to the words "under a contract providing for completion thereof on the vesting date," and though on this occasion the merits of the respective proposals are not under consideration, it should I think be observed that the view of the opponents to this Draft Order gives quite artificial results. Let me give the House an example. A mine which would be expected to work out in three years, and would therefore be valueless to a purchaser, would be valued at a three years' life. I submit that the requirements of Clause 7, subsection (4), of the Coal Act have been met. The information which will be available to the purchaser on the valuation date is given, and the value is based on the rents and on the royalties 665 which are estimated to be receivable after the property vests in the purchaser, which, presumably, are the only matters which will concern him. Accordingly, with those few brief remarks, I beg to move the Motion which stands in my name.
§ Moved, That the Special Order, as reported from the Special Orders Committee on Wednesday last, be approved.—(The Earl of Munster.)