THIRD READING. (Hansard, 16 June 1876)

§ Mr. PEMBERTON
, in moving that the Bill be now read a third time, said, that its object was to authorize the Corporation of Queenborough to improve their harbour for the benefit not only of merchant ships, but also of ships of Her Majesty's Navy. It had received the sanction of the Board of Trade, which had inserted clauses to prevent the tolls from being applied to any other than shipping purposes, to provide for a regular account of the income and expenditure, and for the reduction of the tolls, if they should at any time exceed the requirements. He considered the opposition of the hon. Baronet the Member for Chelsea most unreasonable, when it was remembered it had passed through Committee, and had undergone the scrutiny of the Chairman of Ways and Means. His object was to prevent the improvement of the harbour, merely because the Commissioners appointed to 1967 inquire into the condition of Unreformed Corporations had not yet completed their inquiries. If the Bill passed it would not interfere with any alteration which the Royal Commission might propose should be made in the Corporation. With respect to the Memorial to which the Amendment of the hon. Member referred, it was merely a copy of the Memorial prepared as far back as the year 1839. The Corporation had replied to that Memorial, stating that it was devoid of a particle of truth. No doubt the Corporation was bankrupt 36 years ago, but its property had been sold under an Act authorizing them to dispose of it, and their only object was now to obtain powers to enable them to improve the harbour. The hon. Gentleman concluded by moving the third reading.

SIR CHARLES W.DILKE
, in moving an Amendment, said, that in 1836 the Corporation, which was still an unreformed one, consisted of a very small number of members, and in the year 1836 they possessed a revenue of £16,000 or £18,000 a-year. In 1839 they became bankrupt, and again in 1843. Their debts had never been fully paid, and they owed large sums at the present time. The Bill would enable them to impose taxes to a considerable amount, and in some cases would increase the tolls from 2s. to 8s. The inhabitants had no power in the election of the members of the Corporation. He considered several of the clauses of the Bill to be most objectionable, particularly that which extended the tolls to almost every saleable commodity brought into the town, and that which provided that no justice should be disqualified from acting on account of his being a member of the Corporation. The Commission referred to had only just commenced its inquiries, and had not yet had sufficient time to consider the provisions of the Bill, and under these circumstances he begged to move the Amendment of which he had given Notice.

Mr. GORST
said, the question before the House was not that of the constitution of the Corporation, and whether it was bankrupt or not, but whether the harbour of Queenborough should be improved. The improvement proposed was necessary for the benefit not only of the borough, but of the surrounding country, especially in connection with the new route to Flushing, and if the opposition should prevail all improvements would be put an end to until the Commissioners should have presented their Report. It was most desirable that some authority should have the power of making the improvements required, and as there was no other existing body the Bill proposed to confer it on the Corporation. Every precaution had been taken to prevent abuses, and clauses for that purpose had been inserted by the Board of Trade. That Board decidedly approved of the Bill, and he hoped the House would not reject it.

§ GENERAL SIR GEORGE BALFOUR
urged that the Bill ought not to pass until the Corporation of Queenborough had complied with the Order of the House calling upon it to furnish Returns and accounts. An examination of the abstract of the accounts of local taxation laid annually before Parliament would bring to light the fact that this place had never sent in their accounts to the Local Government Board, which had the responsible duty of making up the whole of the accounts of local taxation; and now, seeing the remarkable way that kind of taxation was increasing, it became a question of great importance to enforce the rendering of due accounts; and as that Bill gave great powers to a place to raise more taxes than hitherto, it was only just to refuse to use that power till the taxes hitherto raised had been accounted for. He also opposed the Bill because it gave rights to a little Corporation to put on additional taxes on our commercial and fishing vessels. These were already 1969 sufficiently burdened. Moreover, the duties entrusted to the new Corporation of Queenborough were of a national character, and ought not to be given over to any other but a national body of officers, and not to a local corporation. Indeed, all taxes and charges now laid on our ships ought to be inquired into and removed, in order to enable them to compete with foreigners not so heavily taxed.

§ Mr. RAIKES
thought the hon. Baronet the Member for Chelsea was under a mistaken impression with regard to the Bill, and that it would be inconvenient to delay a private Bill because it related to an unreformed Corporation which might or might not satisfy the Commissioners. Great injustice might be done to any body in the position of the Corporation of Queenborough, if they were denied the exercise of powers which would be accorded to other bodies, merely because the Commissioners had not yet exercised their powers with regard to Unreformed Corporations. Whatever the Corporation might have done formerly had nothing to do with the question before the House. Great improvements were contemplated in the harbour for the purposes of a new Continental route, in connection with which Queenborough stood in a singular position, being near the greatest depôt of explosive materials, and being frequented by vessels containing materials of that description; and therefore it was considered necessary that the Corporation should have the power of making regulations for the safety of the passengers in the vessels employed on the new route. The Bill, therefore, had been introduced with the simple view of effecting certain improvements, and to provide for the strict application to shipping purposes, and to no other purposes, of the harbour dues. It did not touch any question relating to the solvency or insolvency of the Corporation or its rating powers; it only touched the Corporation as the harbour authority, connected with which they had to carry out certain improvements which the passing of the Bill would enable them to do; and a refusal to pass it would prevent them making any improvement at all. The Bill came before them as an unopposed Bill; and it would be most unusual if the House, at the last stage, were to throw it out.

Mr. ASSHETON CROSS
said, that when the matter came before him for consideration, he did not think it his duty to interfere. To his mind the fact that an inquiry was being made into the affairs of Unreformed Corporations furnished no reason why the public improvement contemplated by the Bill should not be proceeded with. It would be some time before that Commission made its Report, and during the interval public interests must suffer.

§ Mr. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN
said, the harbour required improvement, and as no other body had the power to do so but the Corporation of Queenborough, the matter should not be delayed because the conduct of the Corporation had been impugned in respect to other matters. The Bill had nothing to do with Unreformed Corporations, and he thought it was unprecedented that a private Bill, which had passed through all its stages unopposed, should be opposed on the third reading for such reasons.

§ Mr. DILLWYN
said, that his hon. Friend (Sir Charles Dilke) gave timely Notice that he should oppose the Bill on the third reading, if it went through Committee as an unopposed Bill.