CLAUSE 2. (Hansard, 18 July 1898)

*THE CHAIRMAN
The question is chat I report this Bill without Amendment to the House.

MR. SAMUEL
I think an important change will be made in the law by this Bill. The Commissioners, under the Town Clauses Police Act of 1847, have the power to send fire engines beyond the limits of their jurisdiction, and in that case they can charge a fair cost to the owner of the property on which the fire was extinguished. Under this Bill a very serious change is going to be made, and I should like to warn country Members of its serious nature Under sub-section 2 of clause 1 it is proposed to charge the whole cost, of extinguishing a fire on the parish council or the ratepayers, who are more or less interested. In many of our large towns we already send our fire engines beyond the limits of the borough, and we are able to recover the actual cost of sending them from the insurance companies or the owners of the property, but this Bill proposes to transfer this cost to the poor ratepayers. I am afraid the honourable Member for Leicester, who I understand is the father of this Measure, who has induced the Local Government Board to introduce it, has not read this very important change. He will find in the future that, instead of the owners of mansions or the insurance companies bearing the full cost of extinguishing a fire, it will fall upon the poor ratepayers within the parish.

§ DR. CLARK
I do not think my honourable Friend understands the subsection. It is only when an agreement is entered into that an alteration is made. Where there is no agreement the old law stands. It is the result of not knowing what we are doing. It may please legal Members to have the Bill dished up in this form, but it is very difficult for lay Members, and results in the time of the House being wasted. I wasted it myself to-night, so did my honourable Friend. If the Bill were drafted so that the man in the street could understand it then we would know what we were doing; but 223 drafted as it is, in an obscure legal form, we do not know what we are doing.

§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL
The old Act is as stated by the honourable Member, but surely if a parish makes an agreement with a council for the supply of a fire engine, and money is paid under that agreement, there is no necessity for charging a second time.

MR. SAMUEL
How many parish councils are aware of this sub-section?

§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL
They have asked for it.