HC Deb 26 March 1868 vol 191 cc326-7

Order for consideration of the Bill as amended read.

MR. AYRTON

moved the following clause:— The accounts of the Coal and Wine Duties shall be audited by the auditor appointed by the Secretary of State under the Act of the eighteenth and nineteenth of Victoria, chapter one hundred and twenty, in the same manner as the accounts of the Metropolitan Board are directed to be audited under that Act, and the mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London shall lay before the auditor all the accounts and vouchers relating to the said Coal and Wine Duties, and the auditor shall have and exercise in regard to such accounts all the powers that he has in regard to the accounts of the Metropolitan Board.

Clause brought up, and rend the first time.

MR. CRAWFORD

objected to the clause.

MR. AYRTON

said, that he should persist in moving the clause. It was one that ought really to be adopted. There should be an independent and efficient audit.

MR. GOSCHEN

did not see why in a Continuance Bill a different audit should be established from that already provided.

LORD JOHN MANNERS

said, that when the matter was first mentioned to him he saw no particular objection to the appointment of an independent auditor; but he had not then heard the objections of the City authorities. As no charge was made against the mode in which the accounts had hitherto been audited, he hoped the hon. and learned Member for the Tower Hamlets would withdraw his clause.

Question put, "That the Clause be read a second time."

The House divided:—Ayes 28; Noes 82: Majority 54.

Bill to be read the third time To-morrow.