RESOLUTIONS. (Hansard, 20 September 1886)

§ THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (The Duke of BUCKINGHAM and CHANDOS)

, in rising to move the following Resolutions:—

"1. That inasmuch as this House has been unable within the limits of the present Session to dispose of the whole of the Private and Provisional Order Confirmation Bills suspended in the last Session of the late Parliament pursuant to the resolutions of the 21st of June last, and certain Bills so suspended remain for consideration, the promoters of every such Bill shall have leave to introduce the same in the next Session provided that notice of their intention to do so be lodged in the Private Bill Office not later than Three o'clock on the day prior to the close of the present Session; and that all fees due thereon, up to that period, be paid:
"2. That an alphabetical list of all such Bills, with a statement of the stages at which they shall have arrived, shall be prepared in the Private Bill Office, and printed:
"3. That such Bills shall be deposited in the Private Bill Office not later than Three o'clock on the third day on which the House shall sit after the next meeting of Parliament, with a declaration annexed thereto, signed, in the case of a Private Bill by the agent, and in the case of a Provisional Order Confirmation Bill by an officer of the department by which the orders to be confirmed by such Bill are made, stating that the Bill is the same in every respect as the Bill at the last stage of the proceedings thereon in this House in the present Session, and where any sum of money has been deposited, a3 required by Standing Order No. 57, that such deposit has not been withdrawn, together with a certificate of that fact from the proper officer of the court in which such money was deposited:
"4. That the proceedings on such Bills shall be pro formâ only in regard to every stage through which the same shall have passed in this or the last Session; and that no new fees be charged in regard to such stages:
"5. That as regards all Private and Provisional Order Confirmation Bills suspended by the Standing Orders of the House of Commons of the 17th of June last, which shall have been brought from that House in the present Session, such Bills shall be allowed to proceed to the same stage at which they shall have arrived in the present Session. A declaration to be signed as aforesaid, stating that the Bill is in every respect the same as when brought to this House in this Session:
"6. That if any Private or Provisional Order Confirmation Bill to which these resolutions apply shall have been amended in this House in the present Session, the same Amendments shall be inserted by the Committee on the Bill:
"7. That the Standing Orders by which the proceedings on Bills are regulated shall not apply to any Private or Provisional Order Con- 950 firmation Bill which shall have originated in this House or been brought up from or suspended in the House of Commons, pursuant to the Standing Orders of that House of the 17th of June last, in regard to any of the stages through which the same shall have passed in this or the last Session, or in regard to any of the preliminary proceedings upon such Bill with respect to which the Standing Orders have already been proved to have been complied with:
"8. That all petitions presented in this or the last Session relating to any such Bill shall, if necessary, be referred to the Committee on the Bill in the next Session:
"9. That no petitioners shall be heard before the Committee on any such Bill unless their petition shall have been presented within the time limited in the present or last Session, unless that time shall not have expired before the present Session closes, in which case, in order to be heard, their petition shall be presented not later than the fourth day on which the House shall sit in the next Session;"

said, he wished to describe the position of Private Business, and state what had been done during the present Session. At the beginning of this Session there were 49 Bills which had complied with the conditions of the suspension of last Session, and which remained before the House. Of these, 40 had been disposed of, including among them four opposed Bills. There now remained nine opposed Bills, in regard to which it was perfectly evident, from the nature of the opposition and the principles involved in several of them, that at this period of the year the opponents would cot have had a proper and fair opportunity of placing their case before Parliament, and of obtaining the witnesses upon whose evidence they would found their opposition. In those cases it had been thought right, in order to secure a fair hearing, that they should stand over to a period of the year when the opponents, as well as the promoters, could bring their cases properly before the House. Two or three of the Bills disposed of, he understood, could not be passed in the present Session in consequence of their having received opposition in "another place," which would prevent their being returned to this House. If it had been found possible and right to obtain more of the opposed Bills for the consideration of a Committee, there would have been no difficulty at all in so doing, for on the occasions when he thought it desirable to form Committees he received more intimations of readiness to serve from noble Lords who were anxious to come forward to take their share of the 951 work than were required to form the Committees.