§ Order for Third Reading read.
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL (Kirkcaldy)While I have no doubt that the Corporation of Birmingham are well able to take care of themselves, and have probably given some sort of consent to the Provisional Order which affects them, I want to know whether the Board of Trade have obtained from them a direct consent in express and recorded form? I admit entertaining a very considerable suspicion that the Board of Trade are going far too fast in the direction of letting loose similar companies all over the country, and I am disposed to think that they do not sufficiently comply with 836 the spirit of the enactment of last year as to the obtaining of the consent of Local Authorities. I remember the great fiasco which took place with regard to hundreds of Provisional Orders granted under the last Electric Lighting Act. Almost every one of those Orders was thrown back in the face of the Board of Trade, and practically nothing was done with respect to any of them. It is specially necessary that care should be taken as to what is being done in consequence of the financial aspect of the case. It does not seem to me that in this instance, at least, sufficient precautions have been taken. What are the provisions of the Birmingham Order? In the first place, the concession is not granted to a company possessed of capital and ready at once to carry out the work—it is granted to certain concessionaires, who, I do not doubt, are very respectable concessionaires. Moreover, they are given a year during which they are required to do nothing whatever, nor deposit one farthing. Then they are asked to deposit £2,000, which seems to me a quite inadequate sum for such a city as Birmingham. As I have said, the concessionaires are, no doubt, respectable concessionaires; but the fact remains that they are free to hawk the scheme about, to make a profit of it if they can, and to throw it up if they cannot. That, I repeat, is a matter for the Corporation of Birmingham to decide upon, and, no doubt, they have done so; but I wish to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the Corporation have directly given their consent to the Order?
§ * THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.I must entirely repudiate the intention which the hon. Member attributes to the Board of Trade of disregarding the wishes of Local Authorities in such matters as that before the House. On the contrary, I think the greatest importance ought to be attached, in the granting of Electric Lighting Provisional Orders, to the wishes of Local Bodies. It is obvious, indeed, that that should be so, and it is a proper and right policy to pursue. Turning to the particular case before the Committee, I may point out that the town of Birmingham is represented by seven hon. Members in this House, and the Bill has passed through all its stages without any word 837 of opposition from any of those hon. Gentlemen. More than that, communications have passed with the Corporation with respect to the Bill, and these communications show that the Corporation are assenting to it. They have not in so many words recorded their formal assent, but they have intimated their willingness to do so, and I have no doubt that the assent will be received by the Board of Trade by to-morrow morning's post. Therefore I hope the hon. Gentleman will not oppose the progress of the Bill, which not only the Corporation of Birmingham, but the Members for the borough approve.
§ Question, "That the Bill be now read a third time," put, and agreed to.