NEW CLAUSE. (Hansard, 24 May 1898)

§ COLONEL SAUNDERSON
asked whether the Government intended to finish the Bill that night.

§ MR. GERALD BALFOUR
appealed to those honourable Members in whose names new clauses had been put upon the Paper to allow them to be postponed for discussion to the Report stage. If that was not done, he was afraid the discussion would be carried on to a late hour that night, and place the Committee in a position in which proper attention could not be given to those clauses. He need not say that the great object of the Government was to get the Bill through Committee that night, and if honourable Members would refrain from moving the new clauses standing in their names, that might be done, and, therefore, he hoped they would accept the suggestion ha had thrown out.

§ MR. DILLON
thought that if the Government would give an assurance that fair and reasonable time should be given for the consideration of those new clauses at the Report stage, there was no reason why the right honourable Gentleman's suggestion should not be acceded to.

MR. T. M. HEALY
said he had several new clauses to propose, and complained that they had not been put down on the Order Paper in the ordinary way. He should be glad if the Government would promise to consider those and other new clauses between this and the Report stage, for he could assure the Government that honourable Members who had prepared those new clauses had information at their disposal from which they might derive valuable suggestions. The Government ought not to be above learning from some of these new clauses. As this was an occasion when they were naturally anxious to get away, he would not press his new clauses now if the Government would promise to give special attention to them on the Report.

§ MR. VESEY KNOX
said he had a new clause relating to the Irish officers of the Treasury, and he hoped that if he did not move it now, in consideration of what seemed to be the general wish, an opportunity would be given to discuss the question adequately on the Report. The clause was one to which ha attached very 656 great importance. It was one which he thought would, both from the Treasury and the Government, require consideration before the Report. He hoped that if the right honourable Gentleman's suggestion were adopted, the various Departments concerned would take an opportunity of seeking for information in it meantime, so that they might have something more than a mere conversational discussion on the Report stage.

§ MR. J. REDMOND
said there were a number of important questions raised by some of the new clauses, and it was perfectly obvious that they must have serious discussion upon them. It would not be possible under present conditions that night, and therefore he thought the suggestion of the right honourable Gentleman was in the interest of the movers of the new clauses. Of course, it must be apparent to the right honourable Gentleman that when a number of important questions were postponed in this way, the Government would have to make up their minds to give ample time for discussion on the Report. Under these circumstances he agreed to the suggestion of the right honourable Gentleman, and he thought honourable Members around him would be wise to accept it, and to postpone the consideration of their new clauses to the Report stage.

§ * THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir M. H. BEACH,) Bristol, West
thought it was obvious that it would be a matter of extreme difficulty to deal with the new clauses that night in a manner which might not be either invidious or objectionable. He thought honourable Members would feel that it was for the general interest of all parts of the House to bring to an absolute conclusion the present stage of the Bill, and he was quite sure that the Members of the Government had to thank honourable Gentlemen opposite very much for the considerate way in which they had met the suggestion of his right honourable Friend the Chief Secretary. He did not believe that anyone would lose by postponing the consideration of the new clauses until the Report stags, because in the first place in must be obvious that there would then be a better opportunity for considering them, and, 657 secondly, the Government would have time to consider them all, and some, he hoped, favourably, before the Report stage was taken. The honourable and learned Member for Londonderry has referred to a particular new clause upon the paper dealing with an important matter. He would undertake to look carefully into it.

§ SIR T. LEA (Londonderry, S.)
had an Amendment down which he was willing to put off to the Report stage, but he presumed that the Government would take these new clauses as they now stood upon the Paper without fresh notice being given.

THE CHAIRMAN
thought it would be better that fresh notice should be given in regard to some of the clauses.

§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
said there would be ample time for giving notice.