SUNDAY ENTERTAINMENTS BILL (Hansard, 29 July 1932)

Captain CROOKSHANK
On a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. May I ask whether the new Clause—("Provisions as to Cinematograph Fund")—which I understand the hon. Gentleman the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department is about to move, is in order on two grounds? First of all, it fails in one of the canons of new Clauses in that it is not self-contained. You will observe that the third line refers to conditions imposed "under the last foregoing section." There is no foregoing section, and it presumably refers to some Clause in the Bill which we are going to discuss later on, and therefore is not sufficiently lucid to be admitted as being in order on the Report stage. I understand that the Government attach considerable importance to this Clause, but it does not follow that it is in order.
The second ground on which I ask your Ruling is that I submit the Clause is entirely outside the scope of the Bill. The Title of the Bill is to: Permit and regulate the opening and use of places on Sundays for certain entertainments and for debates, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid. The Title is supplementary to the main purpose of the Bill which, as the Short Title says, is for the purpose of dealing with Sunday entertainments. This new Clause has nothing to do with Sunday. It is to set up a Cinematograph Fund for the purpose of encouraging the use and development of the cinematograph as a means of entertainment and instruction. Therefore, I ask, with all respect, for your Ruling on two points, (1) That the Clause is not self-contained, and (2) that it is not consonant with the Title of the Bill.

§ Mr. SPEAKER
With regard to the first point raised by the hon. and gallant Member, if the Clause is accepted and added to the Bill, it will then be put in its proper place, in which case it will be in order. With regard to the second point, I do not think there is anything outside what is already in the Bill 1822 in the (suggestion made in the Clause. We have already had the suggestion made that certain funds should be given to charity. It is a new idea, and in some cases novelties are an advantage.

Captain CROOKSHANK
With all due deference, I agree that novelty is great fun, but the fact that this is new does not necessarily bring it within the ambit of the Bill. It does not come within the Title, and the Government have not put down any Amendment to the Title. Surely, there should have been an Amendment that one of the objects of the Bill is the setting up of a Cinematograph Fund, but as there is no such Amendment on the Order Paper, and it is too late to put one down now, I submit that the Clause is out of order.

§ Mr. SPEAKER
I did not mean to infer that because it was new it was therefore in order. I said that that was an advantage to it. In regard to the other point which the hon. and gallant Member raises, I do not see that the Clause is outside the Title of the Bill. It seems to me to be quite in order.

§ Sir PERCY HARRIS
In Clause 1 (b), provision, is made for a distribution of a proportion of profits.