§ So much of Sub-section (5) of Section seventy-one of the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, as imposes a limit upon the sum which may be levied under that Act in the whole shall be repealed, but nothing in this Act shall affect the limit imposed by that Sub-section upon the sum which may be levied at any one time.
§ Mr. RUSSELL (Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture, Ireland)I beg to move to leave out from the beginning of the Clause to the word "but" and to insert instead thereof the words
The maximum amount which may be levied in the whole under Section 2016 seventy-one of the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, shall be such sum as is equivalent (taken with any money carried to the Cattle Plague account before the commencement of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, and with any sums levied under that Act) to a poundage of one shilling in the pound on the net annual value of the property in all the administrative counties of Ireland, and accordingly Sub-section (5) of the said Section, as amended by any subsequent enactment, shall have effect with the substitution of one shilling for eight pence.
§ Mr. GRETTONI do not think that the Committee is aware of the necessity for this Bill. Is this Bill necessary this Session, because, as I understand, the right hon. Gentleman already has very considerable powers to deal with this subject.
§ Mr. RUSSELLAt present we have power under the Act of 1894 to levy a rate up to 8d. in the £. We cannot afford to have the fund depleted to its full extent, and hence the necessity for this Bill. This does not touch the English trade at all. It simply extends the power to levy on the ratepayers, which has been exercised since the year 1866 without any complaint, to pay veterinary officers, and also to replenish the cattle disease fund for the payment of compensation for slaughter.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Bill reported; as amended, considered; read the third time, and passed.