LORD HARRIS,in asking their Lordships to give a First Reading to a Bill to amend the law with respect to locomotives on highways, said the object of the Measure was to remove those disabilities which at present prevented the use, and consequently the manufacture, of those light locomotives in which a considerable amount of interest had been taken by the public during the last year or two. The method of the Bill was to exempt light locomotives from certain statutory provisions, and then to impose certain restrictions as regarded weight and traction. The Bill also retained certain power in respect to the regulation of traffic on highways for the authorities who now dealt with that matter. It also reserved to the Local Government Board power to make regulations, and it also contained a provision in regard to the keeping and use of petroleum or of any other inflammable liquid or fluid. He was satisfied this was a Measure in which their Lordships would take a great interest, and he could not help thinking it was possible between now and the Second Reading that some of their Lordships might possibly be able to advise him to his advantage with regard to some of the provisions of it.
§ Bill presented and read 1a.—[No. 46.]