§ House in Committee (according to Order)
§ Clause 1.
§ LORD PLAYFAIRproposed an Amendment on this clause, which he said was of some importance. Your Lordships 1219 will recollect that if there was any dispute between railway servants and their employers as to overwork those disputes were to be considered by the Board of Trade, who would settle the question between them; but that if they failed, the disputes should be taken to the Railway and Canal Commissioners. The latter body had two powers—one administrative, to try and settle the dispute which the Board of Trade had failed to do; the other a judicial power of enforcing penalties if the two parties could not come to an agreement. The object of the Amendment is to limit the administrative power of the Railway and Canal Commissioners to two appointed members—that is, in the present case Sir Frederick Peel and Lord Cobham; and that the Judges who are engaged in judicial duties in the High Court should not be called upon to take part in the administrative part of the Act, but should be able to be called in case of any judicial question. The Railway and Canal Commissioners are strongly of opinion that an Amendment should be made to this effect, and I now beg to move it.
§
Amendment moved,
In Clause 1, page 2, line 17, after ("Act") to insert ("provided that notwithstanding anything in section five of that Act the jurisdiction of the commission for the purposes of this Act may be exercised by the two appointed Commissioners "), and in line 18, after ("railway") insert ("and canal").—(The Lord- Playfair.)
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Remaining clauses agreed to.
§ Bill re-committed to the Standing Committee; and to be printed as amended. (No. 102.)