§ Order for Committee read.
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH moved that the Bill pass through Committee pro formâ, in order to be reprinted with Amendments.
§ MR. CLARE READsaid, the amended Bill would be quite a different measure from that now before the House; and he trusted, therefore, that ample time would be given for its consideration by the country.
§ MR. RYLANDSthought the House was entitled to know definitely, whether the Government, in amending the Bill, intended to throw over County Boards or not?
§ MR. KNATCHBULL - HUGESSENsaid, if he found, after conversation with other hon. Gentlemen who were interested in the question, that he was likely to receive substantial support, he should, when the Bill was in Committee, move Amendments which would have the effect of making highway districts compulsory, so as to establish an uniform system throughout the country.
§ SIR WALTER B. BARTTELOTsaid, if the right hon. Member wanted to stop a Highway Bill, that was the very way to do it, because the country was opposed to the compulsory establishment of Highway Boards. He thought everybody must be of opinion that a Bill of this kind was absolutely necessary now that turnpike roads had been abolished. If the power were vested in the magistrates, they would exercise it as economically as possible, and this arrangement would not interfere with any future measure for the establishment of County Boards.
§ MR. SCLATER - BOOTHsaid, the mode in which the Bill had been altered was as follows:— The word "authority" had been substituted for the word "Board" throughout the Bill, and there was another provision to the effect that the County Justices should be the "authority" for administering the Act. The framework of the measure would be applicable in future years in case County Boards should be eventually established.
§ Bill considered in Committee.
§ (In the Committee.)
§ Clauses 1 to 25, inclusive, agreed to.
§ Clause 26 (Interpretation).
§
MR. SCLATER-BOOTH moved, in page 11, after line 15, to insert—
'Highway authority' means as respects an urban sanitary district the urban sanitary authority, and as respects a highway district the highway board, and as respects a highway parish the surveyor or surveyors or other officers performing similar duties.
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERentered his protest against any such general Amendment being taken as a precedent in the case of other Bills.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH moved, in page 4, after clause 13, to insert the following clauses:—