[Lords.] SECOND READING. (Hansard, 8 June 1868)

§ MR. STEPHEN CAVE,

in rising to move that this Bill be now read a second time, said, that this measure had undergone very careful scrutiny and consideration in the other House of Parliament, and the Board of Trade had received frequent deputations and much correspondence on the subject-matter of it. Many of the provisions were in accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commission, and he hoped that, while it contained much that was valuable, there was very little in it to which either the public or the railway companies could fairly object. The first subdivision of the Bill, dealing with accounts and audit, was designed to meet a requirement which had very generally been felt, and for which the Bill of the right hon. Member for Gateshead (Sir William Hutt), introduced last Session and again this year, was intended to provide, he must here acknowledge the obligation the Board of Trade had been under to his right hon. Friend. They had adopted many provisions of his Bill, and had received from him in addition several valuable suggestions. In one respect he ventured to think that their measure was preferable. It contained ill the Schedule the exact form in which it was proposed that railway companies should keep their accounts. The companies had objected, with some reason, that they might be put to inconvenience and expense if the form were altered from time to time at the discretion of the Board of Trade. The Board had, therefore, after conferring with the accountants of the principal railway companies, settled a form for general adoption. This would not, of course, preclude companies from adding in their half-yearly Reports to their shareholders such further information on matters of detail, such comparative statements with previous years 1295 and proposals of future policy, as the peculiar circumstances of each railway might render desirable. The 13th section related to sea risk. There could be no doubt of the convenience to the public of through booking for delivery beyond sea; and it seemed reasonable that companies should not be placed, by the impracticability of obtaining a bill of lading in each case, in a worse position as regarded their liability than a shipowner receiving goods at the port. It would be open to any consignor who objected to such provisions to make his own arrangements for sea transit. Section 14, requiring that tables of fares should he posted in booking offices, was one of which he gave Notice himself in 1866, and which would much facilitate the payment for tickets, and save time both to the ticket clerk and the traveller. He placed on the Notice Paper at the same time a provision for printing the fares on the tickets, as was generally done on the Continent and sometimes in England, but perhaps the clause now adopted was sufficient for the purpose. The 15th section provided for the separation on demand of terminal charges from the whole rate charged. This was recommended by the Royal Commission, and communications to the same effect had been forwarded to the Board of Trade by the Chairman of Committees and other high authorities. Section 16 proposed to supply a defect in an enactment in the Railways Clauses Act, which was intended to compel the consumption of smoke by railway engines, but which had proved comparatively inoperative. The 17th section dealt with the subject so often brought forward by the hon. Member for Dudley (Mr. H. B. Sheridan) and was the form in which the Board of Trade, after causing experiments to be made on some of the chief railways, considered the question of communication between passengers and guards could best be dealt with. The 23rd section gave shareholders an opportunity of determining at an early stage whether they would proceed with a Bill, instead of, as in what was called the Wharncliffe meetings, expressing their opinion after a much more considerable expense had been incurred. The 28th section, which was introduced on the recommendation of the Attorney General, supplied an accidental omission by prescribing a moderate fee for duties to be performed by a Master of the Court of Queen's Bench under the Act of last Session. These were the chief provisions of the Bill. Some important sug- 1296 gestions had been made by a deputation from the Manchester conference of shareholders too late for the insertion of clauses in the Bill to give effect to such of them as were approved by the Board of Trade while in the other House of Parliament. He proposed, however, to put the Committee on the Bill for that clay fortnight, in order to give ample time for the consideration of these and other suggestions which hon. Members had made or might wish to make on these important subjects.