LEAVE. FIRST READING. (Hansard, 14 February 1862)

§ SIR ROBERT PEEL
Sir, I rise to move for leave to introduce a Bill for the better regulation of Markets and Fairs in Ireland. The subject is one of considerable importance to the domestic industry of the Irish people. Bills have been introduced into this House intended to deal with this subject in 1858, 1859, and 1861. It will be recollected that the Bills of 1858 and 1859 proposed the appointment of a commissioner and an assistant-commissioner who were to have the whole regulation of fairs and markets in Ireland, who were to prepare a schedule of tolls, and who were to have the power of calling upon the owners of fairs and markets to come forward and prove their titles. It will be recollected that my immediate predecessor thought that this was legislation of too minute a character, and that in the Bill introduced last Session it was proposed to leave a great deal to local management and to Orders in Council. That measure was referred to a Select Committee who went carefully into all its details, and the Bill which I have now the honour to submit to the House is, with certain slight modifications, substantially the same as that reported by the Select Committee last year. I believe that the evils so loudly complained of in Ireland will be corrected by this measure, and that in future the fair dealing of the great majority of the trading and agricultural classes will not be tampered and interfered with by that arbitrary and cumbrous machinery which is distasteful alike to producers, consumers, and exporters. The Bill has met with considerable support in Ireland, and I hope to be able, with the co-operation of the Irish Members, upon whose judgment and local experience I confidently rely, to pass it through both Houses in the present Session. I need hardly say that the subject to which the Bill relates has long and frequently engaged the attention of Parliament. More than 200 years ago there was a Parliamentary inquiry into the grievances connected with fairs and markets in Ireland. There was an inquiry into the subject in 1635; in 1640 a Bill for establishing the certainty of the amount of tolls to be levied was introduced, which, unfortunately, did not pass; and there were inquiries in 1697, 1698, 1703, 1764, and in 1826 by a Committee of the English House of Commons to consider the return 332 of tolls in seaports, fairs, and markets in Ireland. In 1830 a Select Committee appointed to take into consideration of the poorer classes in Ireland recommended, among other remedies, a correction of the abuses in respect of tolls and markets; and in 1835 the Committee on Municipal Corporations in Ireland described in their Report the objectionable nature of the tolls levied on fairs and markets, and recommended a thorough revision of the entire system. There have, therefore, been many inquiries and many recommendations on this subject by Commissions and Select Committees. The main object has always been to regulate with certainty the amount of tolls to be levied in fairs and markets, and legislative measures for that purpose have been frequently recommended by Commissions and Committees. Nevertheless, little or nothing has been done, and the inaction of Parliament has been followed by this remarkable result, that in many parts of Ireland a system of force has been organized for the purpose of putting an end to the objectionable tolls. These attempts have been in a great degree successful in the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, and parts of Munster. The agitation commenced in the county of Heath, Kildare, Dublin, King's and Queen's Counties; and the consequence is, that if you were to draw a line from Londonderry to Youghal, you would find that in almost all the fairs and markets to the eastward of that line the tolls have been forcibly abolished, whereas in nearly the whole of those to the westward, with a few exceptions, the tolls still continue to be levied. Of course, that is a very unsatisfactory state of things; because in those places where the tolls have been forcibly abolished worse evils than any which existed before have been created by the want of proper management. About thirty years ago an attempt was made to introduce some improvement, and the result of that attempt has been that since 1836 no patents for fairs or markets have been issued in Ireland; and this is the only recommendation that has been acted on. The history of these fairs and markets is really most entertaining to any one who takes, as I do, an earnest interest in everything that tends to promote the well-being of the industrious classes in that country. There are at this moment 1,297 fairs in different parts of Ireland. Of that very large number there are not one-third held under patent; that 333 is to say, as time has gone on the date fixed in the patent for holding the fair has been changed, and at this moment, of 1,297 fairs, only about 488 are held according to the strict letter of the patents. Of markets there are 349, but of that number also only one-third or about 122, are held according to the stipulations of the patents. The House will, therefore, understand how very distressing such a state of things must be for the agricultural and trading interests of Ireland. In that large number of fairs and markets tolls are levied, and other exactions made, utterly opposed to the spirit of the patents under which they were originally granted. The first patent granted was in the time of James I., and the patents were continued under successive Sovereigns till l836. There are only eight fairs held under special Acts of Parliament. These are Athlone, Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny, Galway, Limerick, and Londonderry. There is one tiling in connection with these fairs and markets, of very serious import, with which the Bill will deal— I mean the system of tolls. They are sometimes leased away, sometimes let for the lives of patentees, and sometimes appropriated to other than market purposes. By an old Act of Parliament, passed in the reign of George 111,, the owner or lessee of a fair is bound to put up a schedule of tolls. I believe that is almost entirely disregarded in Ireland; and tolls are now levied, I think, in Galway on cattle entering the market whether they are sold or not, contrary to Act of Parliament. It appears by that most interesting volume issued by the Commission which sat in 1852, that tolls are actually levied on sales taking place on Sunday. The House will agree with me that this is a highly objectionable state of things, and it is to the correction of its evils the Government have turned their attention. Three several Governments have endeavoured to deal with the subject, but without success. I trust I may be more fortunate. Although it would be unbecoming in me at this late hour to trespass long on the attention of the House, I may be permitted to allude to the main features of the Bill which I shall lay on the table. One of the clauses gives statutory force to the obligation which the common law imposes on owners of markets and fairs to provide accomodation. Now, owners of fairs in Ireland seem to think that they are not bound to provide accommodation; but, strictly speaking, they are bound by law 334 to do so. In 1835 the Judges were consulted by the House of Lords upon an Islington Market Bill, and they gave it as their decided opinion that the owner of the market was bound, in accepting the grant, to provide adequate and convenient accommodation for the people frequenting the market. We endeavour to establish that principle in this Bill. Another evil which gives rise to the greatest possible confusion in Ireland we propose to remedy. I refer to the denominations of weights in Ireland. What is properly called uniformity of weights and measures is already provided for in Ireland by Acts of Parliament, the principal of which are 5 Geo. IV. c. 74, and 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 63. It is the designation or computation of weights by local terms, instead of by the names of the imperial standard weight, that is the remaining mischief now to be got rid of. The House will hardly credit the great variety in the denomination of weights in Ireland. Grain is purchased by the cwt., stone, and barrel, in grain, the stone and cwt. always consist of 141b. and 1121b., but the barrel varies in almost every town. The barrel of oats at Roscrea and Nenagh is 12 stone; at Limerick, Cork, and Dublin, 14 stone; at Newtownlimavady, 18 stone; at Sligo, 24 stone; at Killarney, 32 stone; at Skibbereen and Bandon, 33 stone. A barrel of wheat is 20 stone; a barrel of barley, nearly everywhere, i6 stone; but at Newtownlimavady, 21 stone. Potatoes are purchased in some places by the stone of 141b.; in others, by the stone of i61b.; in some towns "by the weight" of 21 lb.; in others by barrel, in different places, of 15, 20, 21, 24, 32, 40, 48, 64, 72,80, 95, 96 stone of 141b. With such a variety of weights, it was almost impossible that a simple-minded agriculturist should know how to sell his produce. A pound of butter in some places is 16oz., in others 18oz,; a stone of flax in some places 161b., in others 141b.; a cwt. of flax consists in different localities of 1121b., 1201b., and 1241b. Pork in the north is purchased by the long cwt. of 1201b.; in the south, by the cwt. of 1121b. In fact, the whole system of internal traffic in Ireland is unsound. Such a state of things, clearly, is most objectionable. It is quite impossible for the internal trade and the domestic industry of the people of Ireland to go on if the state of things, literally existing at this moment is permitted to continue. The Bill will contain provisions specially for the 335 prevention of fraud in the butter trade. The butter trade is most important. In that most flourishing and beautifully situate locality, the city of Cork, the butter trade is most extensively carried on. I have got a return here of the quantity of butter exported from Ireland in 1860. The quantity exported from Cork in that year was 16,103 cwt,, whereas the quantity exported from the other towns and cities of Ireland only amounted to 11,100 cwt. The importance of the butter trade of Cork cannot, therefore, be exaggerated. The hon. Member for Cork will be able to state if I am wrong, but I believe great complaints even now prevail as to the regulation of the market in Cork. Up to 1829 the trade was governed by the 52 Geo. III. c. 134; but the restrictions and regulations were considered by all parties as insupportable, from their partial application, and all the old butter Acts were repealed, and the trade set free from legislative control, by the 10 Geo. IV. c. 41. We propose to make special regulations for the prevention of fraud in the butter trade. There are also provisions for dealing with pretended and irregular fairs and markets. These are the main features of the Bill which I propose to lay on the table, and which I trust will put an end to a system uncertain, undefined, and vexatious to the people of Ireland. I am quite satisfied that great good will result to Ireland if this Bill is passed. Although we know that Ireland has made great strides since 1848 in endeavouring—I will not say under great difficulties, but with very inadequate inducements—to improve the land under culture, any one who travels through the country must see that much remains to be done which Parliament, in many cases, can assist in doing. We hear it said that Irish industry, in comparison with other countries, is backward I do not know whether that is true, but of this I am sure—that if it is true, it is not attributable to natural defects or want of energy in her people. It will not, however, be denied that there is at the present moment a spirit of improvement developed in Ireland which we cannot too highly applaud; and I believe that by passing this Bill, and removing cumbrous machinery which interferes with the operations of all classes, we shall successfully aid that development. I take no credit for this Bill, but I give it where it is due— to the right hon. Gentleman who preceded me in my present office (Mr. Cardwell), to the 336 noble Lord the Member for Cockermouth (Lord Naas), and to others who have considered the subject. In conclusion, I will repeat that I am sure by passing this Bill, with such modifications and amendments as may be necessary, we shall assist in rendering Irish enterprise and Irish industry more productive and more profitable than is possible under the evils and restrictions which it is designed to remove. The right hon. Gentleman then moved for leave to bring in a Bill for the better regulation of markets and fairs in Ireland.

§ MR. LONGFIELD
, as a Member of the Committee on whose Report the Bill was mainly founded, observed that the existing evils arose chiefly from want of proper accommodation, from frauds by sellers, frauds by buyers, and variations in weights and measures in various parts of the country. He was glad to see that the suggestions of the Committee had been adopted almost without alteration by Government, and that the Bill was introduced at an early period of the Session, whereas, in former years, such measures had fallen to the ground from being introduced at a late period, when the House was occupied with other, perhaps more important, because Imperial matters. He hoped that there would be no opposition to a measure looked forward to with so much hope by the people of Ireland.

§ MR. LEFROY
said, that in his opinion also the subject was one of great importance to the prosperity of Ireland, and expressed his satisfaction that the measure had been brought forward at so early a period. He hoped that the right hon. Gentleman would meet with every assistance in passing it into law.

§ MR. GEORGE
hoped, however, that the people of Ireland would be allowed an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the details of the Bill before the next step was taken. If it only removed the discrepancies which existed in the matter of weights and measures, it would be well deserving of attention; but he thought that the machinery might be simplified with advantage. He could assure the right hon. Gentleman that there was a sincere desire among all parties to assist in legislating upon the subject in a practical form. Although the present Irish Secretary had had the way smoothed for him, he could not better inaugurate his accession to office than by passing so useful a measure.

§ MR. VINCENT SCULLY
congratu- 337 lated the right hon. Baronet on the excellent tone and temper which characterized his statement in asking for leave to introduce the Bill, and he earnestly trusted that the right hon. Gentleman would in future follow the good example he had get to himself on that occasion. The Select Committee of the House on Irish fairs and markets had framed an entirely new Bill, which he presumed was essentially the Bill proposed for acceptance by the right hon. Baronet. If it differed from that Bill in any important respect, he should like to learn where those differences were and in what degree they existed. The chief points to be considered were, whether there should be a permanent Commissioner and compulsory weighing. The proposal to have a permanent Commissioner was rejected in Committee by a majority of one, but be agreed with the gentlemen of the county of Cork in thinking that the measure could not be advantageously worked unless supervision were exercised by such an officer. It had been suggested that the duty might be given to the Board of Works or to the Registrar General's Office. The principle of compulsory weighing was carried in the Committee also by a majority of one; but, while allowing it to be desirable, he did not believe it was practicable. He had proposed as an intermediate course that a declaration of weight should be made by every seller before receiving the price of any article. He hoped the right hon. Gentleman would give his best attention to those two matters.