§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."
§ MR. T. CHAMBERS moved that the Bill be read a second time upon that day six months. This was a Bill for the establishment of a market and baths between Westbourne Grove and Westbourne Park, in the parish of Paddington, and for this purpose four persons, whose names were mentioned in the Bill, were incorporated, with power to take land compulsorily. The addresses of these persons were unknown, and he had tried in vain to find them. The promoters of the scheme proposed to take certain land belonging to the vestry and the trustees of the poor of the parish of Paddington. They also sought powers to build houses upon the frontage of this land. Five years was the period they asked for the completion of the works, and after the market and baths 541 were constructed they wished to be allowed to hold them for ninety-nine years, or to be permitted to sell or dispose of them to a corporation or other persons. The objections to the Bill were very numerous. First of all, there was not the slightest necessity for a market in the locality, nor did the inhabitants demand any such tiling. The affair was, in fact, a mere building speculation. The parish authorities opposed the measure, because they were to be deprived of land which they held for behoof of the poor, merely to accommodate certain private and unknown speculators who desired to turn the scheme to their individual profit. Those who promoted the Bill pointed to Lambeth as an instance of the good that was gained by the establishment in the metropolis of markets like the one proposed. It was quite true that the market at Lambeth served very useful purposes; but the case of Paddington was very different from that of Lambeth. The latter had a very poor population to whom the market was a convenience, but the former was a district filled almost entirely with houses of a first-class character, which were inhabited by rich people, whose convenience was amply provided for by a large number of shops of every description. This proposed market was to be placed in a situation where there was a very great traffic of cabs and omnibuses, and would prove an obstruction. Moreover, it was the intention of the promoters to open up Westbourne Park, and make it a thoroughfare—a step that would seriously diminish, the value of the house property in that neighbourhood, as the people who lived there had taken up their residence in that spot on account of its quietness and its retired situation. Apart, however, from these objections, there was one which took precedence of them all; and that was that it was not the practice of Parliament to give compulsory powers to any company merely for the advancement of a purely private speculation. They had an instance of this in what occurred not long ago. A proposal was made by some private speculators to pull down the houses in the narrow part of the Strand, in front of Holywell Street, for the purpose of erecting a large hotel. "When the Bill came under the consideration of Lord Redesdale that noble Lord declared that 542 Parliament would never give such a power to private speculators; and that it. would be very unfair to throw upon the parish the immense expense of opposing such a measure before a Select Committee. The Bill was accordingly thrown out upon the Standing Orders, and this was what he (Mr. Chambers) wished the House to do upon the present occasion. The inhabitants of Paddington had instructed him to say that they did not want the proposed market; that it would be a nuisance to the neighbour-bood, and would seriously deteriorate the value of property, and that the vestry ought not to be deprived of the land which they held for behoof of the poor, and which was yearly increasing in value. He hoped, therefore, that the House would reject the Bill, and not allow it to go before a Select Committee.
§ COLONEL SYKESseconded the Motion. He had no hesitation in saying that the proposal of the promoters of this scheme was an outrage upon the people of Paddington. It was a mere jobbing speculation on the part of persons, whose very names were unknown, to rob the poor in order to advance their own interests. He was sure the good sense of the House would never grant such a demand.
§ Amendment proposed, to leave out the word "now," and. at the end of the Question to add the words "upon this day six months."—(Mr Thomas Chambers.)
§ Question, "That the word 'now' stand part of the Question," put, and negatived.
§ Words added.
§ Main Question, as amended, put, and agreed to.
§ Bill put off for six months.