MR FIELDI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the proposed Railway Bill will contain a clause to nullify the existing system of compelling the consignors of live stock in Ireland to sign consignment notes under which the carrying company practically claims to contract themselves out of all 798 liability for delay, damage, or ill-treatment?
§ MR. BRYCEThe hon. Member who has been kind enough to be a party to the negotiations now in progress with regard to the Railway and Canal Traffic Bill must be aware that there is no such clause in the Bill, inasmuch as the Bill is confined to cases in which rates have been raised since 1892, and it can hardly be said that consignors of live stock in Ireland are compelled to sign owners' risk consignment notes. I trust, however, that the Bill may be passed in a form in which it will do something to meet the circumstances of which the hon. Member complains.