§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ *LORD MACNAGHTENMy Lords, this is an Irish Bill. It proposes to amend the Tramways (Ireland) Act (1860). Tramway Companies in Ireland, as your Lordships are aware, are constituted by an Order of the Lord Lieutenant in Council, confirmed afterwards by an Act of Parliament. The Order defines the undertaking, and prescribes the amount of capital; and the Act of 1860 requires that the whole of the capital shall be devoted exclusively to the purposes of the Order. Then, in a subsequent section, the Act contemplates that it may be proper and expedient that the tramway should be extended; and it gives the Lord Lieutenant power to approve of such an extension, but it gives him no power to amend the original Order or to authorise the company to increase their capital. The result, therefore, is that existing Tramway Companies in Ireland can obtain the necessary sanction to extend their tramways, but are powerless to increase their capital to enable them to do so. That, of course, was a slip in the Act of 1860, and this Bill proposes to correct it. It also proposes to remove some difficulties which have been found to arise with regard to the Board of Works. The Bill has passed the other House, and was supported by the Attorney General. I beg to move the Bill be read a second time.
§ Bill read 2a (according to order), and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow.