RAILWAYS (EXTENSION OF TIME) BILL. (NO. 36.) SECOND READING. (Hansard, 16 March 1868)

§ THE DUKE OF RICHMOND

, in moving the second reading of this Bill, said, that its object was to give a power of granting to certain railway companies an extension of the time within which their works were to be completed. In the year 1847 a measure was passed (11 Vict., c. 3) which empowered the Board of Trade, on application being made within two months from the 1676 passing of the Act, to extend the time by two years for the completion of railways. There were under that Act 168 applications in consequence of the great pressure of the money market, and the Act was found to work well. During the last Session an Act was passed to enable parties to go before the Board of Trade, and, under certain restrictions, to obtain power to abandon certain railway lines, and twenty-eight applications had been made under that Act. He was sorry the Act did not contain a provision for the extension of time for completing railways, and he had therefore prepared the present Bill, which would enable companies, under similar stringent regulations, to obtain that power. It had passed through the other House of Parliament, and he believed that, if it should become law, it would be beneficial not only to the companies interested, but also to the public and to the landowners whose property the lines would traverse. In many cases it would be hard upon the public and the landowners to compel companies to abandon their lines altogether. The Bill would enable the Board of Trade to extend for two years the period originally granted for the completion of a railway; the period for making the application having been extended to one year from the passing of the Bill, and a proviso had been inserted in the other House which would enable the Board of Trade to ascertain whether the company applying for an extension of time would be able to complete the line within the extended time, and unless the application be bonâ fide it would not be entertained. That provision would prevent any abuse of the powers granted by the measure, which was one to which no objection could then be offered, and which, he believed, would operate in many cases very beneficially.