Lords Sitting of 26 March 1900

VISCOUNT GORT.
Ordered and Directed, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, That a Certificate be sent by the Clerk of the Parliaments to the Clerk of the Crown in Ireland, stating that the Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom has reported to the House of Lords that the right of the Viscount Gort to vote at the elections of Representative Peers for Ireland has been established to the satisfaction of him the said Lord Chancellor; and that the House of Lords has ordered such report to be sent to the said Clerk of the Crown in Ireland. And it is hereby also Ordered, That the said Report of the said Lord Chancellor be sent to the Clerk of the Crown in Ireland.

PRIVATE BILL BUSINESS.
The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House that the Clerk of the Parliaments had laid upon the Table the Certificates from the Examiners that the further Standing Orders applicable to the following Bills have been complied with:—
Colonial Bank.
Pontefract Park.
The same were ordered to lie on the Table.

PRIVATE BILL BUSINESS.

  STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE.
  Report from, That the Standing Orders not complied with in respect of the
  Central London Railway Bill
  ought to be dispensed with.
  That the Standing Orders not complied with in respect of the
  Glasgow District Tramways Bill [H.L.]
  ought to be dispensed with, provided that the powers to construct Tramways Nos. 1, 2, and so much of No. 3 as lies outside the burgh of Dumbarton, be struck out of the Bill.
  Read, and agreed to.

  COWES PIER BILL [H.L.]
  Witnesses ordered to attend the Select Committee.
  RHYMNEY IRON COMPANY BILL [H.L.]
  Committed for Friday next.
  BIRMINGHAM (KING EDWARD THE SIXTH) SCHOOLS BILL [H.L.]
  Committee to meet on Friday next.

  ARMY AND NAVY INVESTMENT TRUST BILL [H.L.]
  NEW RUSSIA COMPANY BILL [H.L.].
  Committee to meet to-morrow.

  NEWTOWN AND LLANLLWCHAIARN URBAN DISTRICT GAS BILL [H.L.]
  Committee to meet on Friday next.
  BEXHILL AND ROTHERFIELD RAILWAY BILL [H.L.]
  Report from the Select Committee, That the Committee had not proceeded with the consideration of the Bill, the opposition thereto having been withdrawn; read, and ordered to lie on the Table: The orders made on the 5th instant and on Monday last discharged; and Bill committed.
  RUGELEY GAS BILL.
  Read 2a, and committed.
  NEWPORT (MONMOUTHSHIRE) GAS BILL [H.L.]
  Read 3a, and passed, and sent to the Commons.

  PAIGNTON URBAN DISTRICT WATER BILL [H.L.]
  EXMOUTH URBAN DISTRICT WATER BILL [H.L.].
  EXMOUTH AND DISTRICT WATER BILL [H.L.].
  Report from the Committee of Selection, That the Lord De Mauley be proposed to the House as a member of the Select Committee on the said Bills in the place of the Viscount Templetown; read, and agreed to.

  LEITH BURGH PROVISIONAL ORDER BILL [H.L.]
  Amendments reported (according to order), and Bill to be read 3a To-morrow.
RETURNS, REPORTS, ETC.
  ARMY (RECRUITING).
  Annual Report of the Inspector-General of Recruiting for 1899.
  MINES AND QUARRIES.
  General Report and Statistics for 1898. Part IV. Colonial and Foreign Statistics. Statistics relating to persons employed, output, and accidents at mines and quarries in the British Colonies and in Foreign Countries.

  EMIGRATION STATISTICS (IRELAND).
  Report and tables for the year 1899.
  Presented (by command), and ordered to lie on the Table.

  CONSOLIDATED FUND (No. 2) BILL.
  Read 2a (according to order); Committee negatived. Then Standing Order No. XXXIX. considered (according to order), and dispensed with. Bill read 3a, and passed.

  COPYRIGHT BILL [H.L.]
  COPYRIGHT (ARTISTIC) BILL [H.L.].
  Order of the day for the Second Reading read.
  LORD MONKSWELL: My Lords, I understand that Lord Balfour is desirous, when these Bills are read a second time of making a statement on behalf of the Board of Trade, and as he unfortunately cannot be here to-day I have consented to put off the Second Reading until Thursday. But, as time is going on, I hope, whether Lord Balfour can be here on Thursday or not, that the Government will see that there is someone in your Lordships' House who will be able to make whatever statement is thought desirable on their behalf. I beg to ask leave to put off the Second Reading of these Bills till Thursday.
  Second Reading put off to Thursday next.

  CENSUS (GREAT BRITAIN) BILL.
  [THIRD READING.]
  Order of the day for the Third Reading read.
  Moved, That the Bill be now read the third time.—(The Marquess of Salisbury.)
  LORD TWEEDMOUTH: My Lords, I desire to call attention to a small point on Clause 9. I apologise for not having raised it when the Bill was in Committee, but unfortunately I was not aware of it until Saturday morning, and as the Committee stage was taken on Friday I could not bring it before your Lordships until to-day. Clause 9 provides that the Registrar General may, at the request of certain local authorities, cause abstracts to be prepared giving statistical information with respect to the areas over which those local authorities have control. The local authorities named in the Bill are the councils of any county, borough, or urban district. I think it is desirable that the number of these authorities should be slightly increased, and that the privileges which are given to county, borough, and urban district councils should also be extended to school boards and school attendance committees. I think it will be evident to your Lordships that the information to be obtained from the census returns would be especially useful to such authorities as school boards and school attendance committees, who are concerned with the number of children within their district of school age or above it. The clause, as I would propose to amend it, would be as follows:—
  "The Registrar General may, if he thinks fit, at the request and cost of the Council of any County, Borough, or Urban District, or of any School Board, or School Attendance Committee, cause abstracts to be prepared by the Superintendent Registrar of the District comprising such County, Borough, Urban District, School Board, or School Attendance Committee, containing statistical information which can be derived from the Census Returns, but is not supplied by the Census Report, and which, in his opinion, the Council, School Board, or School Attendance Committee may reasonably require."
  Your Lordships will see from the clause that the cost of preparing any such returns is thrown on the authority that asks for them, and also that the Registrar General is in no way obliged to give a return unless it is made out to his satisfaction that the return is a desirable one,, and one that should be given. Of course, I am entirely in the hands of the Government, but I thought the point was one of sufficient importance to bring forward. If the Government will accept my Amendment I will move it after the Bill has been read the third time.
  THE PRIME MINISTER AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of SALISBURY): The noble Lord has pursued a course which, even in this House, is out of order. He has proposed an Amendment—I do not say it is a very vital Amendment—and he has done so without giving notice of it on the Paper. The only intimation I had of it was just before I came down to the House. Under ordinary circumstances I should not be prepared to allow that omission to interfere with the reasonable wish of the noble Lord, but, unluckily, the Bill has gone down to the Queen for Commission to-morrow, and therefore it is incapable of being altered without causing considerable delay. As the noble Lord is out of court in consequence of his neglect of a reasonable rule of the House, I do not think it is worth while to postpone the Bill. I should prefer that the Bill passed as it is.
  On Question, agreed to; Bill read 3a (according to order), and passed.
  House adjourned at twenty minutes before Five of the clock, till To-morrow, half past Ten of the clock.