§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ The SECRETARY for SCOTLAND (Mr. Munro)I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a second time."
1316 This is a very short and simple and small Bill, as compared with the last Bill. It is included in one page of manuscript. It is introduced for the purpose of removing a defect in Section 38 of the Burghs Gas Supply Act, 1876, which applies to Scotland. A rate can now be levied to supplement the revenue derived from the sale of gas, and the purpose of this Bill is to remedy the defect which exists, that that rate cannot be levied to meet the annual sinking fund contributions, which the Act of that year required. The defect which exists at present has the result of discouraging investors, particularly in wartime, from investing their money in gas undertakings, and accordingly this Bill has a direct war purpose, namely, to relieve the conditions which at present are hampering local authorities in carrying on these gas undertakings. The Bill has the support of the Convention of Burghs in Scotland, and, so far as I am aware, there is no opposition to it. I, therefore, respectfully ask the House to give the Bill a Second Reading, and after what has fallen from the right hon. Gentleman the Member for the City of London (Sir F. Banbury), I should propose to take the following stages of the Bill to-morrow night rather than to-night.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Bill accordingly read a second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House for To-morrow.—[Mr. J. Hope.]