NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND BILL. (Hansard, 19 December 1906)

LORD HAMILTON OF DALZELL
My Lords, this Bill seeks to give effect, as far as possible, to the recommendation of the Committee of 1903 which, under the chairmanship of Mr. Akers-Douglas, inquired into the whole question of the Board of Manufactures in Scotland. The objects of the Bill are these, put as shortly as possible to your Lordships. 1483 The first is to appoint a new Board to take the place of the Board of Manufactures. The Board of Manufactures, I may point out to your Lordships, is a very ancient institution in Scotland, and dates from a few years after the Union. Its duties, when it was first started, were to foster the woollen and hemp industries in Scotland, and for that purpose it was given the administration of a sum of £2,000 a year, which became payable to Scotland under the Treaty of Union, and it was part of the consideration for the imposition of certain taxes in Scotland. To these duties the care of the Fisheries was subsequently added, and for the first 100 years of the Board's existence it looked after those matters. Towards the beginning of the nineteenth century it began to look after Science, and subsequently Art, and during the latter half of the nineteenth century its duties were confined to those subjects. That is the explanation of how a body with the name of the Board of Manufactures comes to look after Art in Scotland. The next proposal is to substitute a new Board consisting of seven members for the old Board of twenty-one members, as it is considered that seven is a more workable number than twenty-one. It is right that I should mention, on this matter, that Mr. Akers-Douglas' Committee's recommendation has been slightly departed from here. The Committee recommended that the number should be fifteen, and that they should be appointed in a somewhat different manner from that proposed in the Bill. But after lengthy consideration it has been held that it is better, as I say, to make the number seven, and to leave the appointment in the hands of the Secretary for Scotland, whose judgment is only fettered in the matter in one respect, and that is, that three of the members of the Board must also be members of some elected body in Scotland. This is an Amendment which was recently added in another place without a division, and, I believe, unanimously. The second of the objects of the Bill is to hand over the buildings at present in charge of the Board of Manufactures to the Commissioners of Works, thus relieving the income of the Board from the charges of the upkeep of those buildings. The third object of the Bill is to make the sum of £2,000 a year, which is payable under the Treaty of Union, a 1484 charge on the Consolidated Fund; and the fourth object is to give increased accommodation to the Royal Society, the National Collection of Pictures, the Royal Scottish Academy, and the School of Art. If your Lordships wished, I could describe how those matters are to be effected, but I think perhaps it will be simpler, at this late hour, if I simply move that the Bill be read a second time.

LORD HAMILTON OF DALZELL
It might perhaps relieve the pressure of business at a subsequent date, as there seems no objection to this Bill, if I were to ask permission to take it through all its stages to-night.

*LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH
I think it is quite sufficient to take the Second Reading to-night. I do not anticipate any Amendments to the Bill, but I personally have only been able to read it since I came to the House this evening. I do not think there is any serious question likely to arise, but I should like to ask whether the appointment should be made by the Secretary for Scotland or by recommendation to-the Crown. It is not necessary to answer the question now, but it would, I think, be better to put the Bill down for Committee to-morrow, and then, if necessary, it can be taken through the other stages.

§ *THE EARL OF CREWE
My noble friend Lord Hamilton will certainly fall in with that suggestion.