SECOND READING. (Hansard, 9 May 1905)

§ SIR JOHN ROLLESTON (Leicester)

said the Bill only contained one clause, and was designed to protect societies who had the right to use distinctive initials conferred upon them by Royal Charter from the fraudulent use of those characters by those not entitled to use them, and by means of which the public might be deceived. This Bill was pro moted at the desire of various chartered societies in England and Scotland com prising some 20,000 members, and the collective opinion of those societies was that it was as much in the interests of the public as their own. He was aware that the Bill was opposed by societies incorporated but not chartered, who thought that it would confer a monopoly. He assured the House that was not the case, and if the Bill were passed and re ferred to a Standing Committee the interests of the incorporated societies could be there considered and possibly an 1466 arrangement made. He hoped the House would pass the Bill.

§ MR. HARWOOD (Bolton)

opposed the Second Reading because it was apparently a Bill simply to give a patent right to a term to those accountants who belonged to the Society of Chartered Accountants, but all knew that the term "chartered accountant" had come to have a special meaning, and implied that the holder had certain qualifications. As a matter of fact there was another society of accountants with about 2,000 members who could not use the term if the Bill passed, and to whom this Bill would prove an injustice. Before any such change was made some term ought to be found to cover all accountants valued by the public. Let the Society of Chartered Accountants come to a reasonable arrangement. Instead of that they were trying to get for them selves a patent right to a particular term, although they knew it carried with it a signification much larger than was really involved in the word.