HC Deb 16 July 1902 vol 111 c463

Order read, for resuming adjourned debate on Question [7th April], "That the Bill be now read a second time."

Question again proposed.

MR. CALDWELL

said he could not imagine what induced the Government to bring forward this Bill at three minutes to midnight. The Bill established a principle which had never been established before, so far as grants of public money were concerned. The Lord Advocate would also find that the, Bill was as little favoured on the other side of the House as it was on that. The Bill dealt with grants under the Local Government Act of 1889. They were two very important grants—a grant of £20,000 a year, which was given as a medical grant to the local authorities; and also a grant of about £90,000, which was given as a lunacy grant to the Parochial Boards. The Act of Parliament laid down in specific terms how the money under those grants was to be distributed, and it was not in the power of any Department to alter the conditions. The Bill, if it proposed any thing at all, proposed that the Local Government Board should have the power of issuing from time to time—

It being midnight, the debate stood adjourned.

Debate to be resumed tomorrow.