§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGHI ask your Lordships to read this Bill a second time. It is purely to amend the Scottish part of the Schedule in the Act of 1882. That Schedule provides for certain conditions and circumstances in which various of the Local Bodies in Scotland shall, for the purpose of the Electric Lighting Act, be the Local Authorities named in the Act. Doubts have arisen as to the proper meaning of the Scottish part of the Schedule, and in certain burghs in Scotland it is not certain whether the Police Commissioners, the County Council, or the Gas Commissioners are, in the eye of the law, the Local Authority for the purpose of Electric Lighting. In the course of the past winter several of them have applied to the Board of Trade, to know in which of those capacities they are the Local Authority within the meaning of the Act. The Board of Trade have been advised by the Law Officers of the Crown for Scotland that there are doubts and ambiguities in the Schedule as it stands, and the sole purpose of this Bill is to remove those doubts. A considerable amount of correspondence has taken place between the Department and the various Local 1736 Authorities concerned, as to the proper course to pursue and the way in which this should be done. I am now able to say that, with one exception, that of the Town Council of Glasgow, the Bill which I have to ask your Lordships to give a Second Reading to, is an agreed Bill, and I believe no conflict will arise with regard to it. Under those circumstances., unless it is desired to ask any questions about it, I will abstain from taking up any more of your Lordships' time, and I will now move that the Bill be read a second time.
§ Bill read 2a (according to order).
LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGHMy Lords, under the circumstances, and as time is very valuable—it is almost a question of days whether three important towns in Scotland will be able to have their Electric Lighting Provisional Order, passed during the present Session of Parliament—I would ask your Lordships to facilitate the passage of this Bill through the House, by allowing it to be taken in Committee of the Whole House on Thursday next.
§ Bill committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Thursday next.