SECOND READING. (Hansard, 22 August 1889)

LORD BALFOUR

I ask your Lordships to give a Second Reading to this Bill. There is also on the Paper a notice to the effect that I propose to ask the House to suspend the Standing Orders for the purpose of the consideration of the Bill. That notice was given at a time when it was thought possible that it might be necessary ask the House to take that step, but I am glad to be able to inform your Lordships that I do not intend to make that Motion to-day. If your Lordships read the Bill a second time, I propose that the Committee stage should be taken tomorrow. The Bill itself is a very simple one, and one which I think will command the general assent of your Lordships. Its provisions are mostly matters of detail. By the first clause it is proposed to give the Board of Trade power to make Orders, obliging the Railway Companies when called upon to introduce on passenger lines what is known as the block system; also to make a better provision for the interlocking of points and signals where those mechanical contrivances are at present defective; and thirdly (and I think this is the most important provision), to compel the in- 93 troduction and the constant use of efficient brake power. A very large number of vehicles which are used for passenger traffic are now fitted with continuous brakes, but it is found that some companies are backward in introducing these necessary appliances, and it is thought right that further pressure should be put upon them to take that step. The conditions which it is proposed to enforce are laid down, in one of the sub-sections to the first clause of the Bill. It is not the intention, of the Board of Trade, and I am sure it would not be thought right by Parliament, to prescribe by name any particular brake, but there are several brakes in existence and in regular working on some railways which comply with all the conditions in the Bill. These are five in number—that the brake must be instantaneous in action, must be self-applying in the event of any failure in the continuity of its mechanism, must be capable of being applied to every vehicle of the train, must be in regular daily use, and of such material as to be durable and easily kept in order. Those conditions are thought to be necessary, and it is the intention of the Board of Trade that any brake which complies with them shall be regarded as sufficient for the purpose. The second clause of the Bill provides for proceedings in case of a company making default in obedience to the Orders. The third clause provides a method of meeting any expense to which the companies may be put in complying with the Orders. The fourth clause provides for certain Returns being given to the Board of Trade by the companies as to the overtime of the servants in their employ—a matter in which the noble Earl behind me (Earl De la Warr) takes great interest. The fifth clause strengthens the regulations for the production and delivery of tickets upon demand by railway employés. The sixth clause accomplishes a very simple, but I venture to think, a very useful, reform, by providing that the Board of Trade may order (after allowing a certain time for the Railway Companies to work off the existing tickets) that each ticket shall have its price legibly printed upon its face. That is really the whole of the Bill, and I now ask your Lordships to read it a second time.

THE EARL OF MORLEY

I do not rise in any way to oppose this measure, 94 which I think is an admirable on e in many ways; but I think the attention of the House ought to be directed to Clause 3, which empowers a Railway Company executing any of the works ordered to issue debentures or debenture stock in priority to or ranking pari passu with existing debentures. This is a very strong, and. possibly a necessary power; but, in the first place, it would enable Railway Companies to exceed their normal borrowing powers, and in the next place it would enable them to create debentures or debenture stock having priority over existing debentures. I assume that the justification for this is the paramount requirements of public safety. I am quite aware that the amount of capital that is to be so raised is to be fixed by the Board of Trade, and with these guarantees that it will not be improperly raised—and I presume that it will only be raised in the case of extremely poor and small railways—I shall offer no opposition to that portion of the Bill, though I thought it was right to call the attention of the House to it.