MAIL SHIPS BILL. (Hansard, 9 December 1902)

§ (5.55.) MR. CALDWELL () Lanarkshire, Mid

said it was necessary for him to put before the House the nature of this measure. It was a simple and very useful Bill, and had reference to the bond of security which the owner of mail ships carrying mails between this country and a foreign State had to give in order that the ship might have the privileges of a mail ship, which privileges were very considerable in many ways. Under this Act the High Court had to be satisfied with regard to the sufficiency of the security, and if the High Court was not satisfied the security had to be provided in another way. Therefore this Bill made the law more effective by bringing the parties within the jurisdiction of 501 the High Court, and in this respect the measure was an improvement. He wished to point out that the Bill contained a provision in regard to "change in the residence or place or business and serivice." The President of the Board of Trade would find that the whole of this had arisen from tautology in the present Act. They ought to have scored out the words "is from any cause insufficient." As for the Bill, as a whole, it always gave him pleasure, when he found that a Bill was right, to give every facility for it passing, and this was an illustration of the fact that they did not find a measure opposed if it was a really substanital one, as this Bill was.