§ Sir SAMUEL EVANS moved the following Sel edule:—
§ (1) An order by the Development Commissioners empowering a Government Department, body, or persons to whom an advance is made under Part I. of this Act, or the Road Board, or a highway authority (in this Schedule referred to as "the undertakers") to acquire land compulsorily shall incorporate the Lands Clauses Acts, and 2452 those Acts shall apply accordingly, subject to the following modifications:—
- (a) Any question of disputed compensation shall be determined by a single arbitrator, who shall be appointed, and whose remuneration shall be fixed, as respects England, by the Lord Chief Justice of England, as respects Scotland, by the Lord President of the Court of Session, and, as respects Ireland, by the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and the arbitrator so appointed shall be deemed to be an arbitrator within the meaning of those Acts;
- (b) An arbitrator so appointed may, notwithstanding anything in the Lands Clauses Acts, determine the amount of costs, and shall have power to disallow, as costs of the arbitration, the costs of any witness whom he considers to have been called unnecessarily, and any other costs which he considers have been caused or incurred unnecessarily;
- (c) In determining the amount of any disputed compensation under any such order, no additional allowance shall be made on account of the purchase being compulsory, and the arbitrator shall have regard to the extent to which the remaining and contiguous lands and hereditaments belonging to the same proprietor may be benefited by the proposed work or road for which the land is authorised to be acquired by the undertakers;
- (d) The provisions of the Lands Clauses Acts as to the sale of superfluous land shall not apply.
§ (2) An order authorising the acquisition of any buildings may, if a portion only of those buildings are required for the purposes of the undertakers, notwithstanding anything in the Lands Clauses Acts, require the owners of and other persons interested in those buildings to sell and convey to the undertakers the portions only of the buildings so required if the arbitrator is of opinion that such portions can be severed from the remainder of the properties without material detriment thereto, and in such case the undertakers shall not be obliged to purchase the whole or any greater portion thereof, and shall pay for the portions acquired by them and make compensation for any damage sustained by the owners thereof or other parties interested therein by severance or otherwise.
2453§ (3) In construing, for the purposes of this Schedule or any order made there-under, any enactment incorporated with the order, this Act together with the order shall be deemed to be the special Act and the undertakers shall be deemed to be the promoters of the undertaking, and the expression land shall include easements in or relating to land.
§ Sir FRANCIS POWELL moved, in the proposed Schedule, after the word "Acts" ["shall incorporate the Lands Clauses Acts"], to insert the words "and Sections seventy-seven to eighty-five of the Rail-ways Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845."
§ Sir SAMUEL EVANSI have considered this matter with the assistance of the draftsman, and I propose to accept these words. The effect will be to make it clear that the Mineral provisions of the Lands Clauses Acts apply to this case also.
§ Amendment to the proposed Schedule agreed to.
§ Mr. CULLINAN moved, in paragraph (a), to leave out the words "Chief Justice" ["Lord Chief Justice of Ireland"], and to insert instead thereof the word "Lieutenant."
§ There is no precedent in any Act dealing with Ireland for the Lord Chief Justice to have the power of making such appointments as these. In the Labourers Act and other statutes it is the Lord Lieutenant If the Solicitor-General does not see his way to make it the same here, perhaps he would insert the head of the Land Commission.
§ Sir SAMUEL EVANSI hope the hon. Member will not press the Amendment. It would be rather invidious to make the proposed alteration. We have taken the heads of the judiciary, namely, the Lord Chief Justice in Engalnd, the Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland, and the Lord Chief Justice in Ireland. I do not think we will be able to make an invidious distinction between Ireland and England. Moreover, we have an exact precedent in the Finance Bill of this year, where these same persons are appointed to a like office.
§ Mr. CULLINANI must say that the Solicitor-General led us to believe—gave us an assurance—that he would go into the matter, and the Members for Ireland thought that the alteration was to be made.
§ Sir SAMUEL EVANSThat is not so. The promise given to the hon. Member 2454 for Newry (Mr. Mooney) was that if he brought me precedents for the course suggested the matter would be considered. Those precedents have not been received.
§ Question, "That the words 'Chief Justice' stand part of the Clause," put, and agreed to.
§ Question, "That the Schedule, as amended, stand part of the Bill," put, and agreed to.
§ Bill read the third time, and passed.