LOCAL LEGISLATION (IRELAND) (No. 2) BILL— [BILL 27.]—SECOND READING. (Hansard, 28 February 1872)

§ MR. HERON
, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that the existing system of promoting in London Bills relating to Irish local matters involved enormous expense. Last year one Bill, involving a local expenditure of £21,000, had been passed at a cost of £7,000, and the average expense of carrying through such legislation was £4,000 or £5,000. Last year 1122 the Local Government Bill for Ireland was introduced by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, but it had turned out an entire failure; and therefore he now moved the second reading of the present Bill, which provided that the proceedings on all local and personal Acts relating to Ireland should be conducted in that country; that all plans should be lodged in Ireland; and, in case of opposition, that the whole matter should be tried by one of the Election Judges in Ireland.

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON
trusted that the hon. Member would not ask the House to enter upon a discussion of the Bill at that hour. The Chairman of Ways and Means had already announced his intention to bring before the House the whole subject of the course of proceedings upon Private Bills, and it would therefore be convenient, in discussing what should be the future tribunal to decide upon Private Bills, that the House should have the opportunity of previously hearing what would be suggested by the Chairman of Ways and Means, who had devoted a great deal of time to the consideration of the question. Should the House, however, not be disposed to deal with the whole subject during the present Session, he (the Marquess of Hartington) should consider it his duty to bring forward some measure relating to Ireland. He thought the present Bill had better be postponed until they saw what steps the House would take in dealing with the subject as a whole. At the same time, he was not prepared to admit that the Irish Local Government Act passed last year was a failure; and he thought it extremely probable that when the mode of procedure under that Act came to be more generally known many provisional orders would be applied for.

§ COLONEL WILSON-PATTEN
also expressed a hope that the present Bill would be deferred until the Chairman of Ways and Means introduced the proposal of which he had given Notice. The inconvenience complained of in respect to Ireland was also common to the distant parts of England and Wales; but there was no doubt that the mode of conducting the Private Business of the 1123 House was capable of amendment, so as to save expense and trouble to parties.

§ MR. SERJEANT SHERLOCK
hoped it would be understood that, in the event of the proposal of the Chairman of Ways and Means not being adopted, some measure would be passed in relation to Ireland.

§ MR. M'MAHON
said, he had a Bill on the same subject, and as that Bill was fixed for the 15th of May he suggested that the second reading of the present Bill should be postponed till the same day.

§ MR. HERON
said, he would consent to that proposition.