HC Deb 11 March 1895 vol 31 cc852-3

The House went into Committee on this Bill.

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON,) Tower Hamlets, Poplar

said, that the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Bristol had asked him to give a short explanation of the Bill. It only placed the Australian Colonies in the same position for making fiscal arrangements, as the Cape and Canada were in at present. Special instructions would be issued that all proposals under the Bill should be by way of reserved bills, subject to the veto of the Crown, and that the Australian Colonies should not make any fiscal arrangements under the Bill practically without the consent of Her Majesty's Government. He understood that the right hon. Gentleman was willing that the Bill should be passed.

SIR G. BADEN-POWELL (Liverpool, Kirkdale)

observed that he had looked through the Bill very carefully, and, in his opinion, the wording would have to be amended in some respects, which he should be glad to point out privately to the Under Secretary for the Colonies.

Clauses 1 and 2, together with the Schedule, were agreed to, and the Bill was reported, without amendment, to the House.