§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ SIR BENJAMIN HALLsaid, he would now beg to move the second reading of this Bill. He would take that opportunity of replying to the observations which had been made by the hon. Members who had addressed the House in respect to these measures. He could assure the hon. Member for Lambeth (Mr.W.Williams) he had no desire to restrict discussion, but had taken a course which would render, he thought, the Bills more open to discussion. He would accede also to the suggestion of the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. Newdegate), and have the Bills printed, and allow ample time for a consideration of their provisions. He was more convinced than ever, from the statements which had been made that day, that the Bills were most necessary, and that they would be most difficult to pass. It was his duty not to shrink from these difficulties, and he would bring before a Select Committee, to which he hoped the Bills would be referred, all the suggestions which had been made to him from different quarters. He had no desire whatever to interfere with existing interests more than was absolutely necessary for the welfare of the community at large, but if existing interests were not carried out for the benefit of the community, he thought it was necessary for the Legislature to interfere. He had no objection to transfer the powers for the intervention of the Board of Health when the mortality exceeded the rate of twenty-three in 1,000 to the Diseases Prevention Bill, and he thought it a most useful suggestion. A provision would be introduced to limit these powers under the Order in 1720 Council to temporary cases. With respect to the alteration of districts, the question was one that must be considered by the Select Committee. He had proposed a Bill such as he thought would be useful. He could only make suggestions, and it would be the duty of the Committee to carry them out. One of the important provisions of the Bill was the compulsory power of taking land for the purposes of the Act, but it would require to be carefully guarded. When any one read the evidence taken before a Committee of that House with respect to the expense which parties were put to who came for Bills for local purposes, he would feel that the time was come when some other tribunal, less expensive, should be permitted to decide these matters. He had a great desire to reduce this expenditure, and he hoped the Select Committee would assist him in so doing. Three of his colleagues in the representation of the metropolis had wished to insert a clause for compensation to those persons who had created nuisances when these nuisances are to be put down. He (Sir B. Hall) could not hold out any hope that he, for one, should be disposed to give that compensation. He did not think it would be useful, and he hoped that the Select Committee would not offer compensation to those who had created nuisances, and who would be obliged by the Public Health Bill to remove those nuisances. It had been urged by several hon. Members that evidence should be heard before the Select Committee. He had no objection to that, but he hoped the Committee would set their face against any unnecessary prolongation of taking evidence. It was his desire to pass a Bill as early as possible, in order that, if a pestilence should again visit the country this summer, they might have taken every precaution, and shown all the foresight that it was in their power to do. A noble Lord had said with reference to this question that there were two parties, the dirty party and the clean party. He (Sir B. Hall) must say that the most dirty party he knew were the gas companies and the water companies, and if any attempt was made to improve the sanitary condition of the public, and to supply them with more light and the means of securing greater cleanliness, the first persons to oppose such a proposition were usually the dealers in gas and the retailers of water. While the Select Committee would see that the rights of gas and water companies were properly preserved, he trusted they would not allow 1721 these Bills to be thrown over by those whose duty it was to minister to the wants of the public in respect to the supply of gas and water. It would be his duty to lay before the Select Committee all the suggestions which he had received; and he sincerely hoped that after they had been considered by the Committee, and ample opportunity given to the country to consider them, some measures would be passed, at no distant period of the Session, to carry out objects so necessary.
Bill read 2°, and committed to a Select Committee.