§ MR. OCTAVIUS V. MORGAN (Battersea)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the effect of the provisions which the Board have inserted in Electric Lighting Orders now before Parliament, authorising Local Authorities to transfer their undertakings, will be practically to confer upon the Board of Trade powers to perform functions heretofore exercised by Parliament, and also deprive the public of the means that they now have of resisting any such transfer by appearing before a Parliamentary Committee where evidence is taken upon oath; and whether the Board would have the power to administer an oath if the functions of Parliament were so vested in that Department?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Sir M. HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.Section 11 of the Electric Lighting Act, 1882, provides that—
No Local Authority, Company, or person shall by any contract or assignment transfer to any other Company or person, or divest themselves of any legal powers given to them, or any legal liabilities imposed on them by this Act, or by any licence, order, or special Act, without the consent of the Board of Trade.The Provisional Orders granted under the Act referred to require that public notice of the proposed transfer shall be given, and the transfer cannot be made without the consent of the Board of Trade, by whom the deed of transfer must be approved, and who will make any inquiries that they may consider 1781 necessary in the interests of the public. The Board of Trade would have no power to administer an oath. With regard to the merits of the clause, I wish to point out that the Local Authorities, who are representatives of the ratepayers, ought to be the best judges of their interests in matters affecting the lighting of the town.