Lords Sitting of 19 March 1903

PRIVATE BILL BUSINESS.
The LORD CHANCELLOR The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House, That the Clerk of the Parliaments had laid upon the Table the Certificate from the Examiners that the further Standing Orders applicable to the following Bill have been complied with:
Wakefield and District Tramways [H.L.]. The same was ordered to lie on the Table.
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Pill [H.L.]. A witness ordered to attend the Select Committee.
St. Philip's Chapel (Regent Street) Bill [H.L.]; West Bromwich Corporation Bill [H.L.]; All Saints. Poplar (Rate Abolition) Bill [H.L.]. Reports from his Majesty's Attorney-General received, and ordered to lie on the Table.
Birmingham District Tramways Bill [H.L.]; Thames River Steamboat Service Bill; Jewish Colonisation Association (Petition for Bill). Examiner's Certificates of non-compliance with the Standing Orders referred to the Standing Orders Committee on Thursday next.
St. Philip's Chapel (Regent Street) Bill [H.L.]; West Bromwich Corporation Bill [H.L.]. Read 2a (according to order).
All Saints, Poplar (Rate Abolition) Bill [H.L.]. Read 2a (according to order).
Scottish American Mortgage Company, Limited Bill [H.L.], committed.
Hastings Harbour District Railway Bill [H.L.]. Committed: The Committee to be proposed by the Committee of Selection.
Barry Railway Bill [H.L.]. The Chairman of Committees informed the House that the opposition to the Bill was withdrawn: The order made on Thursday last discharged, and Bill committed.
Nantwich Gas Bill [H.L.]. The Chairman of Committees informed the House that the promoters do not intend to proceed further with the Bill: The Orders made on Thursday last discharged: Ordered, that the Bill be not farther proceeded with.
Chard Corporation Gas and Electricity Bill [H.L.]. Report from the Select Committee, That the Committee had
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not proceeded with the consideration of the Bill, no parties having appeared in opposition thereto; read, and ordered to lie on the Table: The orders made on the 9th of March and Thursday last discharged; and Bill committed.
British Gas Light Company (Norwich) Bill [H.L.]. Report from the Select Committee, That the Committee had not proceeded with the consideration of the Bill, no parties having appeared in. opposition thereto; read, and ordered to lie on the Table: The orders made on Thursday last discharged; and Bill committed.

RETURNS, REPORTS, ETC.
  HOUSE OF LORDS MANUSCRIPTS.
  The LORD CHANCELLOR The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House, That the Clerk of the Parliaments had laid upon the Table the Calendar of the Manuscripts of the House of Lords, Volume II. (New Series), in continuation of the volumes issued under the authority of the Historical Manuscripts Commission: The same was ordered to be printed. (No. 18.)
  CHINA, No. 2 (1903).
  Provisional rules defining the respective jurisdiction of the mixed courts of the International and French Settlements at Shanghai.

  BOARD OK EDUCATION.
  1. Reports from University Colleges (1902).
  2. Provisional code of regulations for public elementary schools and training colleges; with schedules (1903). Presented [by Command], and ordered to lie on the Table.

  PENAL SERVITUDE ACTS, 1853–1891 (CONDITIONAL LICENCE).
  Licence granted by his Majesty to James Johnstone, a convict under detention in Wormwood Scrubbs Prison, permitting him to leave the prison on condition of his proceeding to the Middlesex Hospital, there to be examined, and, if necessary, to undergo an operation, and there remaining in the custody of a prison officer, and afterwards returning when fit to do so to Wormwood Scrubbs Prison.
  PUBLIC RECORDS (ADMIRALTY DEPARTMENT).
  Tenth Schedule containing a list and particulars of classes of documents which have been removed from the office of the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and deposited in the Public Record Office, but which are not considered of sufficient public value to justify their preservation therein.
  FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION SCHEMES, INDUSTRIAL AND PROVIDENT SOCIETIES, AND TRADE UNIONS.
  Reports of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, for the year ended 31st December 1902: Laid before the House (pursuant to Act), and ordered to lie on the Table.
ELECTRIC LIGHTING (LONDON) BILL [H.L.]

  SECOND READING.
  Order of the day for the Second Reading read.
  LORD WOLVERTON: My Lords, the object of this Bill is a very simple one, and one which must be very familiar to those of your Lordships who carry on the Committee work of this House. A considerable number of small alterations in the boundaries of the are as of local authorities in London have been made under the London Government Act, 1899, and these necessitate corresponding adjustments of the boundaries of electric lighting areas. These electric lighting boundaries have not been dealt with by the schemes under the London Government Act, as it was considered more convenient that they should be dealt with as a whole by a single Bill. This Bill is introduced for the purpose. If your Lordships consent to read the Bill a second time, the Board of Trade will be prepared, where any difference of opinion arises between the areas concerned, to call a conference, and they have great hopes that that conference will save your Lordships the trouble of a Select Committee. The conference would be held at the Board of Trade, and some high official of that department would
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  be nominated as a member. I beg to move the Second Reading.
  Moved, that the Bill be now read 2a.—
  (Lord Wolverton.)
  Bill read 2a (according to order).

  INSPECTION OF MOTOR BOILERS.
  THE EARL OF MAYO: My Lords, I beg to ask his Majesty's Government, in view of the increasing number of small steam boilers in use in motors, motor omnibuses, steam lorries, etc., what system of inspection is adopted with regard to these boilers. I do not, of course, refer to water-tube boilers used in motors and motor omnibuses. Your Lordships are no doubt aware that a number of these lorries and motors move about the streets of London, and if an accident occurred, say, in Piccadilly Circus, it would have a most disastrous effect. I believe that last year an explosion of this sort did occur in the country, and that the man who was driving the motor was never seen again.
  LORD WOLVERTON: My Lords, in answer to the noble Karl's question I have to state that there is no system of Government inspection of steam boilers in vehicles of the kind to which the noble Lord refers. Neither the Board of Trade nor the Local Government Board have power to require such inspection, but, in the event of an explosion of a boiler coming under the provisions of the Boiler Explosion Acts, 1882 and 1890, the Board of Trade have power to order a preliminary inquiry or formal investigation into the circumstances. Steam boilers in motors would, it is thought, come under these Acts. They could hardly be regarded as domestic boilers, though the point might be argued in the case of private motor carriages.
  THE EARL OF MAYO: I beg to give notice that I will raise the Question at a later period.

  DISCHARGE OF SOLDIERS WITHOUT PENSIONS.
  THE EARL OF MAYO: My Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government (1)

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  how many soldiers have, since the outbreak of war in South Africa, been discharged from the Army without pensions for diseases not directly attributable to active service in the field; (2) whether, in view of the large number of men so discharged, the medical examination of recruits is carried out with sufficient care, as the discharge of so many destitute men must have a prejudicial effect on voluntary recruiting.
  THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (the Earl of HARD-WICKE): My Lords, I am perfectly willing to give the noble Earl all the information I can on the subject. He asks, in the first place, how many soldiers have, since the outbreak of war in South Africa, been discharged from the Army without pensions for diseases not directly attributable to active service in the field. During the years 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1902 the total number of men so discharged was 6,745. As to the second question, I do not think we can admit that the number I have mentioned is so large as to have a prejudicial effect on recruiting. I would point out to the noble Earl that, as a matter of fact, during the last two years we have had better recruiting than ever before, and it is only during the last few years that so many men have been discharged. Prior to the war the number of men so discharged was comparatively small; in 1899 the number was 275, and in 1900 it went up to 2,539. During the years I have mentioned the total number of recruits enlisted was 126,149, and therefore the percentage of men discharged from the Army, without pensions, for diseases not directly attributable to active service in the field, is only five per cent, which I think we may consider comparatively small.
  Then the noble Earl suggests that the medical examination of recruits is not carried out with sufficient care. The Commander-in-Chief has laid down the very strictest instructions that no recruit is to be sent before the examining medical officer unless he has a reasonable chance of passing—that is to say, when he first comes forward and expresses his wish to join the Colours, the recruiting officer is supposed to satisfy himself that the man has a reasonable chance of passing the medical officer before taking
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  him. In spite of that very strict order the number of men who are rejected prior to enlistment is over 32 per cent. If the noble Earl will refer to the report of the Inspector-General of Recruiting for this year, he will see that during the year 1902 the number of men who desired to enlist and were medically examined was 87,609 and that the number who were rejected prior to enlistment for various ailments and for want of physical development was 28,221. I think that shows that the medical examination is carried out with very great care, and that it would be difficult to improve upon the system now in force. The noble Earl further suggests that the men so discharged are in a destitute condition. I would point out that men who have been rejected for pensions, always receive a gratuity amounting to not less than £2, and that should any of them have been enlisted for over three years they receive on discharge a gratuity of £1 for each completed year or portion of a year of service up to a maximum of £12, so that in many instances the men discharged from the Colours for the causes mentioned by the noble Earl received an amount sometimes as large as £12, and never less that £2. When soldiers come before the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital, owing to injury or illness incurred on service, they are very often given pensions for six or twelve months pending further examination, but the figures I have given the noble Earl are quite apart from terminable pensions.

  LICENSING ACT AMENDMENT BILL [H.L.]
  THE EARL OF WEMYSS: Before the House adjourns I desire, with your Lordships' permission, to present a Bill the object of which is to secure uniformity in the granting, by way of renewal or transfer, of licences for the sale of intoxicating liquors. This is not my Bill. It was drafted by the late Lord Bramwell, but, unfortunately for this House and the country, that distinguished lawyer died before he could bring it in. It was drawn up in consequence of what appeared to Lord Bramwell to be the injustice of the existing law, as shown in the case of Sharp v. Wakefield, and I think that what is

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  taking place at the present time proves that some measure of the kind is necessary. I therefore present this Bill for your Lordships' consideration, and beg to move that it be read a first time.
  Moved, that the Bill be now read 1a.—(The Earl of Wemyss.)
  On Question, agreed to; Bill read 1a and to be printed (No. 19).
  House adjourned at a quarter before Five o'clock, till Tomorrow a quarter past Four o'clock.