SECOND READING. (Hansard, 3 March 1885)

§ MR. HOPWOOD
said, that, with regard to the Bradford Waterworks and Improvement Bill, he desired to explain to the House the action he had taken yesterday in giving Notice of opposition to this and other measures which then stood on the Paper for second reading. He had done so from no wish to place any impediment in the way of the passing of these measures, which were, no doubt, very useful to the communities in respect of which they were being promoted, but simply in order to call attention to the fact that it had fallen to his lot once or twice before to point out to the House that some of them came within the provisions of the Standing Order which had been passed in former years. That Standing Order applied to all Bills which contained arbitrary provisions in excess of, or altering, the general law relating to sanitary questions, and dealing with matters of police regulation. His only object was to secure that, in dealing with these Bills, the House would adopt the course, which had been taken on other occasions, of referring them to a special Select Committee. Since he had given Notice of opposition, he had had an opportunity of communicating with his lion. Friend the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. H. H. Fowler); and he found that his hon. Friend had made satisfactory arrangements for carrying out this year the previous order of the House. Probably his hon. Friend would explain the course he proposed to take. Ho would only add that he did not intend to persist in his Notice of opposition.

§ MR. H. H. FOWLER
remarked, that in preceding years the intervention of his hon. and learned Friend in regard to Bills of this nature had been a great public service, because it had had the effect of bringing directly under the notice of the House some of the extravagant provisions which were introduced into these measures. The House, for some years, had appointed a Committee 1884 to deal with Bills which contained provisions relating to police and sanitary regulations; and ho certainly felt that it was necessary to propose the reappointment of that Committee this year, seeing that a number of Bills had been brought forward which dealt with questions of this character, the provisions of which would require careful scrutiny. If the Bills were now read a second time, in the course of a day or two he should be prepared to bring forward a Motion for the reappointment of the Select Committee to consider them in the same way as in former years.

§ MR. W. E. FORSTER
asked if he was to understand his lion. Friend to say that the Select Committee would have the whole subject before them in the case of every Bill that contained provisions affecting sanitary and police regulations? [Mr. H. H. FOWLER: Yes.] He (Mr. W. E. Forster) believed that the main part of the Bradford Bill, if not the whole of it, would not come within the scope of his hon. Friend's remarks. He did not, however, object to the Bill being sent to the proposed Committee, on the understanding that that did not imply delay in the consideration of the Bill.