DEFENCE OF THE REALM (ACQUISITION OF LAND) BILL. (Hansard, 31 October 1916)

§ Sir F. BANBURY

I desire to say a few words upon the Third Reading of this Bill, and I should be much obliged if the Government would arrange that some Minister should be in charge, as I wish to ask him a question. This Bill was introduced some time ago, I think in June, and as it was introduced it was the opinion of a great many Members of this House on both sides an extremely bad Bill. This is an instance of how a Bill may be improved if hon. Members on both sides set to work honestly to endeavour to improve it. In this particular case I think the result has 1651 been good, although the measure is still capable of improvement. The Solicitor-General will remember that on the Report stage the Government introduced an Amendment into Clause 13 which deals with the acquisition of land belonging to any local authority or to any public company, and I moved an Amendment to leave out the words which were then introduced, and to put in the word "statutory." The Solicitor-General, in answer to my Amendment, which he did not accept, said: If the right hon. Gentleman knows in any places of railways affected by his point, we certainly would not desire to include them under this Bill. I have only lately become acquainted with the Government Amendment, and at that moment I did not answer my right hon. Friend. Since then I have been given two instances which I will now give. Some land has been taken by the Great Northern Railway to widen the line, and it has not been used for the undertaking to widen the line, and in order to make a bridge to do away with a level crossing This land has been taken by the Government for munition purposes and stores. At Grantham the workhouse has been bought by the Great Northern Railway for an extension of the station and the widening of the line, and the workhouse at Grantham has been taken possession of by the Government for the purpose of stores. There are two instances which have been brought to my notice, and which I have been requested to bring to the notice of my right hon. Friend. Of course, we can do nothing in this House, but, in view of the undertaking which was given me upon the Report stage, I would ask the Government to consider this question in another place, and I feel certain that my right hon. Friend will agree to do so. I have to thank the Government for accepting a considerable number of Amendments, all of which, with the exception of one or two Amendments of the Government, improve the Bill, and I think the Government will admit that those of us who opposed the Bill opposed it in a reasonable spirit and that our efforts have been successful in making it a better Bill. I hope that my right hon. Friend will give me an undertaking to carry out the pledge that he gave to consider this point further in another place.