§ LORD HARRIS moved the Second Reading of this Bill. He said its object was to facilitate the action that had to be taken when a ship, on coming into port, was reported by the medical officer to be in an insanitary condition. At present it was necessary to move the local authority to send an order, but it had been pointed out to the Local Government Board that the Act of 1890—the Infectious Diseases Prevention Act—provided a far more simple procedure. The Board, therefore, had introduced legislation which would practically put a ship in the same position, as regarded treatment of this kind, as a house. That was the object of the Measure, and the result of it would be that, upon a medical officer presenting a certificate that the ship was in an insanitary condition, it would be sufficient for the clerk to the local sanitary authority to give orders to the captain to have the vessel cleansed at once. There was also a provision in the Bill that, should the captain not be able to do so, the local sanitary authority could undertake to do the work at its own expense.
119 Read 2a (according to Order) and committed to a Committee of the Whole House To-morrow.