Lords Sitting of 2 June 1899

NEW PEER.
The Marquess of Exeter—Sat first in Parliament, after the death of his father.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
  PORTSMOUTH CORPORATION BILL [Lords].
  The Chairman of Committees informed the House that the opposition to the Bill was withdrawn: The orders made on the 27th of February and the 18th of May last discharged; and Bill committed.
  NORTH-EASTERN AND HULL AND BARNSLEY RAILWAYS (JOINT DOCK) BILL [Lords].
  The Queen's consent signified; and Bill reported from the Select Committee with amendments.
  NORTH-EASTERN RAILWAY BILL [Lords].
  The Queen's consent signified; and Bill reported from the Select Committee with amendments.
  COALVILLE URBAN DISTRICT GAS BILL [Lords].
  Commons Amendments considered, and agreed to.
  KENSINGTON AND NOTTING HILL ELECTRIC LIGHTING BILL.
  Read 2a, and committed; the Committee to be proposed by the Committee of Selection.
  MIDLAND AND SOUTH-WESTERN JUNCTION RAILWAY BILL.
  Read 2a, and committed.
  COBHAM GAS BILL [Lords].
  Read 3a, an Amendment made, Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.
  ALL SAINTS' CHURCH (CARDIFF) BILL [Lords].
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  WESTON - SUPER - MARE, CLEVEDON, AND PORTISHEAD TRAMWAYS COMPANY (LIGHT RAILWAY EXTENSIONS) BILL [Lords].
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  WHITEHAVEN CORPORATION BILL.
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  BIRMINGHAM, NORTH WARWICKSHIRE, AND STRATFORD-UPON-AVON RAILWAY BILL [Lords].
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  GROSVENOR CHAPEL (LONDON) BILL [Lords].
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  MOSS SIDE URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL (TRAMWAYS) BILL [Lords].
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  STRETFORD URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL (TRAMWAYS) BILL [Lords].
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  WITHINGTON URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL (TRAMWAYS) BILL [Lords].
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  BELFAST CORPORATION BILL.
  Brought from the Commons; read 1a and referred to the Examiners.
  CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY AND TOWN GAS BILL [Lords.]
  Returned from the Commons agreed to, with amendments.
  GLASTONBURY WATER BILL [Lords].
  Returned from the Commons agreed to, with amendments: The said amendments considered, and agreed to.
  QUEEN'S FERRY BRIDGE BILL [Lords].
  Returned from the Commons agreed to with amendments: The said amendments considered, and agreed to.
  ELECTRIC LIGHTING PROVISIONAL ORDERS (No. 14.) BILL [Lords].
  Read 2a (according to order).
  GAS AND WATER ORDERS CONFIRMATION BILL [Lords].
  Read 2a (according to order).
  TRAMWAYS ORDERS CONFIRMATION (No. 1) BILL [Lords].
  Read 2a (according to order).
  TRAMWAYS ORDERS CONFIRMATION (No. 3) BILL [Lords].
  Read 2a (according to order).

  JONES'S DIVORCE BILL [H.L.]
  Read 3a (according to order), and passed, and sent to the Commons.
  PETITIONS, REPORTS, ETC.

  MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS (BOROUGH FUNDS) ACT, 1872.
  Petition for Amendment of; of Mayor, &c., of Kidderminster; read, and ordered to lie on the Table.

  COMPULSORY VACCINATION.
  *THE LORD CHANCELLOR (the EARL of HALSBURY): My Lords, I have to present a petition from the Guardians of the Poor of the Wandsworth and Clapham Union, in the County of London, and in doing so I am bound to say that I entirely differ from the reasoning with which they prefer their request, and also from the request itself, which is for the abolition of any form of compulsory vaccination.
  Petition read, and ordered to lie on the Table.

  TREATY SERIES, No. 12 (1899).
  Accession of Japan to the Industrial Property Convention of 20th March 1883.

  TRADE REPORTS—ANNUAL SERIES.
  No. 2279. Tunis (Trade and general progress, 1898–99).
  No. 2280. China (Ichang).
  No. 2281. China (Amoy).

  CAPE OF GOOD HOPE (OBSERVATORY).
  Report of the Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope Observatory to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, for the year 1898.
  Presented (by command), and ordered to lie on the Table.

  SUPERANNUATION—TREASURY MINUTES.
  (1) Dated 19th May, 1899, declaring that James Mills, turner, Royal Gun Factory, War Department; and,
  (2) Dated 24th May, 1899, declaring that Charles Brading, fitter, Royal Laboratory, War Department;
  were appointed without Civil Service certificates through inadvertence on the part of the head of their Department.

  NATIONAL DEBT (SAVINGS BANKS).
  Balance-sheet setting forth the assets and liabilities of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt in respect of trustee savings banks on 20th November, 1898.

  SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE ACT (IRELAND) 1877.
  Four Orders in Council, dated 13th May, 1899, giving effect to Rules of Court under the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898.
  Laid before the House (pursuant to Act) and ordered to lie on the Table.

  PARISH COUNCILLORS (TENURE OF OFFICE) BILL.
  Read 3a (according to order), with the amendment, and passed, and returned to the Commons.
  SEA FISHERIES BILL [H.L.]
  A Bill to amend the law relating to sea fisheries was presented by the Earl of Camperdown (for the Lord Heneage); read 1a; to be printed; and to be read 2a on Thursday next. (No. 106).
CONGESTED DISTRICTS (SCOTLAND) ACT AMENDMENT BILL.

  SECOND READING.
  Order of the day for the second reading read.
  *THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Lord BALFOUR of BURLEIGH): My Lords, it will be within the recollection of your Lordships that two years ago an Act was passed which constituted a Congested Districts Board for Scotland, and under which certain powers were given to the Board for expending a sum of money which Parliament had set apart for the purposes of the Act. Those powers, of course, are the only ones under which the Board can work, and the experience of the year and a-half's working which we have had has shown us that in some respects they do not confer all the powers which we would like to be able to exercise. It is obviously inexpedient for us to enter upon any enterprise which we are not sure we have

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  the right to carry through in all its developments, and the object of this small Bill, which I now ask your Lordships to read a second time, is in some respects to extend the powers which are given to the Board by the principal Act. The chief object of the Bill is to enable the Board to give grants-in-aid to various localities within the congested districts in aid of practical education. As your Lordships are probably aware, a new Code of Education in Scotland has been promulgated this year, part of the policy of which has been to give large grants from the Imperial funds for this class of work. We do not aim at definite trade teaching, but, on the other hand, we recognise that if the children in these districts are to be made useful citizens, we cannot confine their education wholly to book-work. What we desire to aim at is to develop all their faculties, and by means of practical work to cultivate their faculties of observation and of manual dexterity. Under the Code which I have just mentioned liberal grants are offered to localities which meet the conditions laid down. I am sure your Lordships will consider that it is a sound principle upon which to work that Imperial funds should not be given as a rule except in response to corresponding activity and expenditure on the part of the localities, and there is certainly no intention on my part to in any way cast discredit upon what I have described as a sound principle. I will further say that so far as much the larger portion of the districts in Scotland are concerned, there will, I believe, be no sort of difficulty in their coming forward and meeting the conditions upon which these grants are offered. They know the value of practical education, and they have therefore every inducement to put their hands into their pockets, and to do their part; but in those Highland and poor districts to which the work of the Congested Districts Board is confined the conditions are different. They have the fewest openings for practical education, and yet they are precisely the very districts which cannot contribute out of their own resources to gain the advantages which are offered from the Imperial funds, and one of the chief objects we want to serve by this Bill is to help those poor districts to meet the conditions laid down, and, where we find it necessary, to give them funds which will enable them to obtain the Code
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  grant. We trust that in this way we shall be able to elicit a real, practical interest in these matters, and to get the local authorities to start and manage these schools. The Board are absolutely unanimous that this policy is a right one. Since it has been indicated publicly we have had many representations in favour of it; I believe I may say that all those who have communicated with me have expressed themselves in favour of this policy. I have every hope, if your Lordships will pass this Bill, that it will not encounter opposition in another place, and I ask your Lordships now to give it a second reading.
  Bill read 2a (according to order), and committed to a Committee of the whole House on Monday next

THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION, 1898.

  PROPOSED GRANT TO LORD KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM.
  Message from the Queen—Delivered by the Lord Chancellor, and read by his Lordship, as follows:
  Her Majesty, taking into consideration the eminent services of Major-General Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., in planning and conducting the recent expedition into the Soudan, and being desirous, in recognition of such services, to confer some signal mark of Her favour upon him, recommends to the House of Lords that She should be enabled to grant Lord Kitchener the sum of thirty thousand pounds:
  Ordered, that the said message be taken into consideration on Monday next.
  House adjourned at twenty minutes before Five o'clock to Monday next, a quarter past Four o'clock.