EDINBURGH SUBURBAN ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS ORDER CONFIRMATION BILL. (Hansard, 18 December 1906)

LORD HARRIS
said he had some Amendments on the Paper which he understood the Government would accept. They were Amendments which had been put into every Bill of the same character hitherto, and they were practically drafting Amendments. He therefore proposed to move them en bloc.

*THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (The Earl of Onslow)
Before the noble Lord in charge of the Bill informs the House whether or not the Government are prepared to accept these Amendments, I should like to enter a protest against the course pursued. In the first place, I do not think the Amendments can be called drafting Amendments; nor is it accurate to say that they have always been inserted in Bills under similar conditions. Secondly, I do not think it is a practice which ought to be followed for Amendments of this kind to be proposed in your Lordships' House on Third Reading when there has been ample opportunity under the Scottish Procedure Act of bringing them under the notice of the Commissioners in Scotland and getting a decision there after the arguments have been heard. I think your An Asterisk (^*)at the commencement of a Speech indicates revision by the Member. 1150 Lordships would be well advised, where Amendments of this kind are proposed on third reading and are opposed, not to give your sanction to them. These Amendments are, as I understand, agreed Amendments, I shall, therefore, not invite your Lordships to reject them.

LORD HARRIS
explained that the power which the company on whose behalf he was acting had was to apply for a Joint Committee of both Houses in another place; but they were advised by those who generally helped them in these matters in the House of Commons that owing to the mass of business and the late period of the session it was practically impossible for them to obtain that Joint Committee. The First and Second Readings were taken very unexpectedly on Friday, and it was only yesterday that he had an opportunity of putting down Amendments.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH
thought the noble Earl the Chairman of Committees was quite right in advising the House not to accept opposed Amendments at this stage. He renewed the protest he had made on the previous day against Order Bills of this kind being brought up from the House of Commons one day and passed through all their stages except the Third Reading, and then put down for Third Reading on the following day, thereby preventing the moving of Amendments except without notice. There ought to be at least an interval of one day between the notice that the Bill was to be read a second time and the actual reading of the Bill.

*LORD HAMILTON OF DALZELL
These Amendments are not opposed by the promoters of the Bill, and I am instructed to accept them.

§ THE MARQUESS OF RIPON
I quite agree with what fell from my noble friend Lord Balfour. I think he is quite right in saying that it is undesirable that this sort of thing should take place; but, as I understand, my noble friend at the Table is not inclined to question the matter at this moment either on that or on any other ground; I think your Lordships, therefore, need not press the matter further. If my noble friend at the Table had 1151 objected to these Amendments in the circumstances, I certainly should have supported his authority.

*LORD HAMILTON OF DALZELL
moved two Amendments on the Paper standing in his name. He said the first gave effect to an arrangement between the promoters and the Postmaster-General, and the second simplified the process of arbitration in the case of the undertaking being taken over by a local authority.