§ Order of the day for the Third Reading read.
§ LORD REDESDALEsaid, he had been assured by the railway companies that it was most important and necessary to guard against the frauds that were perpetrated on them, in order to enable them to give the public cheap facilities in connection with return and excursion tickets. The railways had a right to ask to be protected against these frauds, and if not, it could not he expected that the public would meet with these facilities.
§ Moved, That this Bill be now read 3a
§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYobjected to the enormous power it would give to the officials employed by railway companies to take persons into custody and detain them, in order that they might be brought before the magistrates on suspicion of having committed an entirely new offence. That offence was committed when a person who had taken a contract ticket, a return, 1299 or excursion ticket, sold it, or gave it away, or otherwise disposed of it to another person. He thought the proper course for the railway officers to adopt in such cases was to obtain a summons against the offender.
§ LORD REDESDALEsaid, he hoped this Bill would pass before the dissolution of Parliament, as it was necessary for the protection of railway companies, and the season for excursion trains was now approaching. The Railway Clauses Act designated it as a fraud on the company if any passenger refused to leave the train when he arrived at the place for which his ticket was taken, and thus travelled beyond the distance he had paid for; and it could not be denied that a most deliberate fraud was likewise practised by a person getting a return ticket, distinctly stated not to be transferable, and then transferring it to another person.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Bill read 3a accordingly and passed.
§ House adjourned at Half-past Seven o'clock, till To-morrow, Half-past Ten o'clock.