TOWN HOLDINGS. (Hansard, 11 March 1891)

§ *(5.45.) MR. BARTLEY (Islington, N.)
In this proceeding I think we are creating a new precedent. This is the sixth year of the appointment of this Committee, and it has been sitting continuously for five years. I had the honour of a seat upon the Committee for four years, and, without boasting, I may say I was most regular in my attendance. But I happened to be the only Member from this side of the House who took the view that occupying tenants should have the right to purchase their freeholds, and I presume, in consequence of that, though I was anxious to be re-appointed last year I was excluded from the Committee. It is, I think, rather a novel proceeding in the re-appointment of a Committee when it lasts more than a year that changes should be made in the personnel, because of the views of individual Members, and I think it would be in accordance with Parliamentary practice that a Committee should be re-appointed as it stands unless a Member wishes not to be re-nominated. Though I have now no personal wish in the matter, I think it right to make a formal protest against a proceeding tending to give a purely partisan character to Committees and to detract from the value of their work.

§ (5.46.) MR. D. THOMAS (Merthyr Tydvil)
I object to the proposed consti- 719 tution of the Committee, and claim that inasmuch as the Committee deals with a subject upon which Wales is interested the Committee should have Welsh representation.

§ (5.46.) THE PATRONAGE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. AKERS-DOUGLAS,) Kent, St. Augustine's
As the branch of the subject to be investigated by the Committee this Session entirely affects Scotland, in accordance with the promise given by my right hon. Friend, certain Scotch Members have been nominated to the exclusion of others. As regards the question raised by the hon. Member for Merthyr, it is a reasonable proposal that the Principality should be represented. As regards the remarks of my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, certainly the alterations have not been made by me in consequence of any views he may have expressed in Committee upstairs, which have never come to my knowledge.

§ (5.47.) MR. S. T. EVANS (Glamorgan, Mid)
It is, I believe, not certain that the Committee will take no other than Scotch business; but though that may be so, I may be allowed to say that Scotch Members will not object to the appointment of a Member from the Principality.

§ *(5.47.) THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. RITCHIE,) Tower Hamlets, St. George's
We are quite prepared to assent to the nomination of two additional Members, one of whom may be a Welsh Member. Ordered, that the Select Committee on Town Holdings be re-appointed to inquire into that portion of the original reference to the Committee which the Committee was precluded by want of time from reporting on last Session, namely, "into the question of imposing a direct assessment on the owners of ground rents and on the owners of increased values imparted to land by building operations or other improvements. Ordered, That the Committee do consist of Twenty-four Members. The Committee was accordingly nominated of,—Mr. Tyssen Amherst, Mr. Gerald Balfour, Mr. Barbour, Mr. Baumann, Mr. Beadel, Mr. Bryce, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Channing, Mr. Cameron Corbett, Mr. Crilly. Sir John Ellis, Mr. Elton, Mr. Esslemont, Mr. Monro Ferguson, Mr. Lewis Fry, Mr. Seale-Hayne, Mr. Knowles, Mr. Lawson, Sir William Marriott, Colonel Nolan, Sir Charles Pearson, Mr. James Rowlands, Mr. Mark Stewart, and Mr. Powell-Williams. 720 Ordered, That the Committee have power to send for persons, papers, and records. Ordered, That Five be the quorum.—(Mr. Akers-Douglas.)