§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ VISCOUNT BURY, in moving that the Bill be read the second time, said, that although it went in the same direction, it did not go so far as that of his noble Friend (Lord Rayleigh). The Bill to which the House had just given a second reading was a Companies Bill, as it put the undertakings of the Electric Lighting Companies on equal terms with those of the Gas Companies. But he believed that the interests of the public would be best served if a term were given at the end of which the electric lighting undertakings should belong to, or should be capable of acquisition by, the Local Authorities. His noble Friend, on the other hand, gave the Electric Lighting Companies a perpetuity like the Gas Companies. The term fixed by the Bill which he was now moving was 42 years. He had no objection to the greater part of his noble Friend's Bill; but it would be in the interests of the public that both should be referred to a Select Committee. If the Government had prepared a Bill on this subject why had they not brought it on before, instead of wishing to delay these Bills? Legislation was urgently required on this subject, as the Act of 1882 had made electric lighting altogether an impossibility. He did not know of a single place which had been lighted under it. It had entirely frightened capitalists away, as no one would invest money in a concern which could be sold for the price of old iron at the end of 21 years. He proposed to give a term of 42 or 63 years, at the end of which period the Local Authority would have to pay the price of a going concern.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."—(The Viscount Bury.)
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly.