§ This Act shall apply to Scotland, with the following modifications:—
§ (1.) In Section five of this Act the expression "Secretary for Scotland" shall be substituted for the expressions "Board of Agriculture" and "Board of Trade" respectively, occurring in that section.
§ (2.) References to the council of any county, borough or district shall be construed as references to the County Council of any county, or the town council, or where there is no town council the police commissioners of any burgh, or the commissioners of any police burgh, or the district committee of any district under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889;
§ (3.) "Arbiter" shall be substituted for "arbitrator," and that arbiter shall be deemed to be a single arbiter within the meaning of the 612 Lands Clauses Acts, and in lieu of the provisions of the Arbitration Act, 1889, the provisions of the Lands Clauses Act with respect to an arbitration shall apply, except the provisions of the said Acts as to the expenses of the arbitration, in lieu of which the following provision shall have effect—namely, the expenses of the arbitration and incident thereto shall be in the discretion of the arbiter, who may direct to and by whom and in what manner those expenses or any part thereof shall be paid, and may tax or settle the amount of expenses to be so paid, or any part thereof and may award expenses to be paid as between agent and client;
§ (4.) The Lord President of the Court of Session shall be substituted for the Lord Chancellor;
§ (5.) The money necessary to defray expenditure, not being capital expenditure incurred by a County Council in pursuance of this Act, shall be raised by a rate imposed along with but as a separate rate from the rate for maintenance of roads (hereinafter referred to as the "road rate") leviable under the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, upon lands and heritages within the county, or the district, or the parish, as the ease may be. The money necessary to defray expenditure similarly incurred by a town council, or police commissioners, or burgh commissioners, shall be raised by a rate imposed along with but as a separate rate from the police assessment or burgh general assessment, as the case may be. If the expenditure incurred is capital expenditure it shall be raised by borrowing in the manner authorised by the Order, as in Section fifteen hereof mentioned;
§ (6.) The provisions relating to district councils shall apply to district committees, subject to the following modifications—
- (a.) A district committee shall not be entitled to make an application under Section two hereof except with the consent of the County Council given at a special meeting of the council, of which one month's special notice, setting forth the purpose of the meeting, shall have been sent to each councillor,
- (b) A resolution to give such consent shall not be passed by the council unless two-thirds of the councillors present at the special meeting concur in the resolution.
- (c.) Nothing in this Act shall authorise a district committee to raise money by rate or loan, but any money necessary to defray expenditure, not being capital expenditure incurred by it in pursuance of this Act, shall be raised by the County Council by a rate imposed along with but as a separate rate from the road rate; and any money necessary to defray capital expenditure shall be raised by the County Council by borrowing in the manner authorised by the Order, as in Section fifteen hereof mentioned;
§ (7.) The expression "Clauses Acts" shall mean the Lands Clauses Acts, the Railway Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1845, the Companies Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1845, the Companies Clauses Act, 1863, the Railways Clauses Act, 1863, and the Companies Clauses Act, 1869;
613§ (8.) References to the Local Government Act, 1888, and the Local Government Act, 1894, shall be construed as references to the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889, and the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1894.
§ (9.) In order to carry out in Scotland the provisions contained in Sub-section (1) (c) of Section 5 of this Act, it shall be the duty of the assessor of railways and canals, as regards any parish to which the said Sub-section (1) (c) applies, to enter on his valuation roll either the annual value of the light railway within such parish ascertained in terms of the Valuation of Lands (Scotland) Acts, or the annual value at which the land occupied by or for the purposes of the light railway would have been assessed if it had remained in the condition in which it was immediately before it was acquired for the purposes of the railway, whichever is loss.
§ (10.) Where a light railway constructed under the powers of this Act is owned or leased by an existing railway company, such light railway shall not be valued by the said assessor as part of the general undertaking of the railway company, but shall be valued as a separate undertaking.
§ DR. CLARK moved to insert, at the end of Sub section (2) the words, "or in any county where there is no District Council any two or more Parish Councils may combine." He understood that the Government were willing to accept the Amendment.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE moved, in Sub-section (5), to leave out the words "as in Section fifteen hereof mentioned," and to insert the words "the rate chargeable for repayment being the same rate as is liable for maintenance as aforesaid."
§ MR. CALDWELL moved to amend the proposed Amendment by inserting after the word "repayment" the words "of capita], including interest and expenses."
§ THE LORD ADVOCATEsaid the Amendment was not in any way intended to alter the Bill but to make it clearer. He was quite willing to admit the drafting Amendment to his Amendment suggested by the hon. Member.
§ Amendment to the proposed Amendment agreed to. Amendment agreed to.
§
MR. CALDWELL moved, at the end of Sub-section (5), to insert the words:—
and the amount thereof shall be levied by a rate imposed along with but as a separate rate from the rate imposed for payment of debt and
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for payment of interest on any debt under the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, upon lands and heritages within the county or the parish as the case may be.
§ He said the first part of the Amendment was quite in Order. [Laughter.]
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE, rising to Order, said that the Amendment went against what bad already been passed. The persons charged were the occupiers. If the Amendment was accepted the rate would be levied under the Roads and Bridges Act, and the charge would then fall on the owners.
§ *MR. SPEAKERThe Amendment is out of Order.
§
MR. CALDWELL moved, at the end of that same Sub-section, to insert the words—
and it shall not be necessary for the County Council to have the consent of the Standing Joint Committee for such borrowing.
§ He said he moved the Amendment in order to make it clear that the consent of the Standing Joint Committee to the borrowing should not be necessary.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ DR. CLARK moved, in Sub-section (6), after the word "committees," to insert the words "or combinations of parish councils."
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ MR. DONALD NICOL (Argyll)rose to move, in Sub-section (6)—(a) to leave out the word "special," and to insert the word "statutory." He said he was afraid that if the word "special" stood they would never get a meeting at all in the constituency he represented. He did not know whether the Lord Advocate would accept this Amendment, or whether he would be inclined to accept another Amendment he would like to move, namely, to give the alternative and make it "special or statutory."
§ THE LORD ADVOCATEassented to the insertion of the words "special or statutory."
§ MR. CALDWELLhoped the Lord Advocate would look at the effect of this Amendment. According to the Bill there must be a special meeting for the 615 purpose. If the Amendment was carried, the matter might be brought forward at the Statutory meeting by simply putting a notice on the Paper. The Bill laid down that an application for a light railway could only be made by a meeting of a district committee called together for that purpose after a month's notice. If the Amendment were agreed to the application would be authorised at an ordinary statutory meeting of which no special notice had been given. It was desirable that a month's notice should be given in order that the opinion of the inhabitants of a district might be clearly expressed.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ MR. CALDWELL moved, in Subsection (6)—(b) to insert after the word "present" the words "and voting."
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ MR. CALDWELL moved, in Subsection (6)—(c), to leave out the words "not being capital expenditure." He explained that by a previous provision they had abolished all difference between capital and ordinary annual expenditure in regard to the rate to be raised. It was unnecessary, therefore, to put in these words "not being capital expenditure." They were redundant. The whole of the money was now to be raised by one uniform rate. The words which he proposed to leave out would only create a little ambiguity.
§ THE LORD ADVOCATEproposed to retain the words if they were only redundant, as the hon. Member said they could do no harm. It was perfectly true that the rate for both capital expenditure and ordinary expenditure was to be the same, yet it was right that the district committee should not be allowed to meddle with capital expenditure. The sanction should come from the County Council.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
616§ Clause 26,—