STANDING ORDERS. (Hansard, 23 March 1893)

§ THE CHAIRMAN OF WAYS AND MEANS (Mr. MELLOR,) York, W.R., Sowerby
I beg to move the following Amendment:— Line 1, leave out 'Every Bill by which a Railway, Canal, or Tramroad Company is incorporated, shall contain a clause to the following effect,' and insert,' In the case of every Bill for incorporating a Railway, Canal, or Tramroad Company, or for giving any powers to an existing Railway, Canal, or Tramroad Company to which no Rates and Charges Order Confirmation Act expressly applies, the Committee on the Bill shall fix the rates and charges for merchandise traffic (including small parcels of a perishable nature conveyed by passenger train) by reference to the Rates and Charges Order Confirmation Act of some other Company which, in the opinion of the Committee, will properly and conveniently apply; and the Committee shall, in the case of an existing Company, provide that the rates and charges for merchandise traffic, and such small parcels as aforesaid so fixed, shall be in substitution for the rates and charges for similar traffic authorised to be taken by the Company under their existing Acts. If the Committee shall be of opinion that no such Act as aforesaid will properly and conveniently apply they shall insert a clause to the following effect.' I may explain that this Amendment practically carries out what has been the practice of the House for the last two or three years. The Board of Trade had been in the habit of requiring a clause of this nature to be put in Bills, and it was thought desirable that there should be a conference between the Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords, the Chairman of Ways and Means here, the President of the Board of Trade, and the President of the Local Government Board. That conference was held, and as a result this Amendment was arrived at to secure uniformity of practice between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

§ MR. TOMLINSON
said he had Amendments to the proposal on the Paper, but he had no wish to press them if they were considered unnecessary.

§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. MUNDELLA,) Sheffield, Brightend
The Amendments are unnecessary.

§ MR. TOMLINSON
said the Amendments applied to canals as well as to railways, therefore the word "tolls" should be inserted as well as "rates and charges," for the reason that the bulk of the traffic on the canals was carried by toll. Private owners ran their barges along the canals, paying so much by way of toll, and it seemed to him that unless the alteration he proposed was effected, great difficulty would be experienced in working the Standing Order.

§ MR. MUNDELLA
assured the hon. Member that the object he had in view would be effected by the Amendment as it stood.

SIR, M. HICKS BEACH (Bristol, W.)
said the whole object of the Legislation of 1888, in the 24th Section of the Act of that year, and the proceedings that had taken place under it, 857 was to ensure that the classifications under which traffic was carried should be uniform throughout the country, and that the rates also should be uniform. That was fairly met by the Amendment the right hon. Gentleman proposed. He doubted, however, whether it was worth while to continue the power of a Committee on a Bill to insert some entirely different classification, and conditions and rates, subject to revision three years afterwards by the Board of Trade. The right hon. Gentleman would agree with him that in so far as that would lead to a further number of private Acts differing from the Provisional Orders already passed it would not be a public benefit. Why should a Committee have power to insert a scale of rates and charges in a Bill that might be much higher than anything that Parliament had sanctioned? He should like to see the omission of the second part of the proposed Standing Order, which he believed was only proposed two years ago as a temporary arrangement. He, therefore, moved the omission of the last three lines of the Amendment by which that temporary arrangement was to be retained.

§ MR. MUNDELLA
said the Standing Order had already been passed by the House of Lords, and agreement in the matter had been come to by the officials of that House, of the House of Commons, of the Board of Trade, and of the Local Government Board.

§ SIR M. HICKS BEACH
said that was not a sufficient answer to the point he had raised. It was desirable that the rates and charges should be uniform, but under the latter part of the Standing Order, they might be varied by a Select Committee. He should be sorry to agree to the continuance of this alternative Standing Order if it were possible to do without it. If the point were placed before the House of Lords, 858 probably they would reconsider the matter.

§ MR. MUNDELLA
Perhaps it would be as well to put off the Standing Order until Monday to allow time for a conference with the House of Lords.

§ SIR M. HICKS BEACH
said he would withdraw his Amendment with that view and move the adjournment of the Debate.