§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
THE EARL OF CRAWFORDMy Lords, this is a Bill which I believe to be substantially an agreed measure not arousing points of controversy analagous to those we have heard this evening. It is to provide land for sailors and soldiers in Ireland. The Bill does not change the existing land acts in Ireland except in one small particular. It merely extends under the two groups of land acts the benefits to soldiers and sailors who as such are not at present qualified to become benficiaries under these Acts. The machinery therefore in Ireland already exists. Large powers are vested in the Government and the two separate series of enactments—namely, the Land Purchase Acts and the Labourers (Ireland) Act—provide a system by which soldiers and sailors can be settled on land in Ireland without any substantial modification of the existing law. The Bill in fact does no more than to say that soldiers and sailors as such shall be qualified to benefit under these two groups of statutes where as now it is a specified body of men who can be included under these two groups of Acts. The first clause of the Bill makes the provision as regards the Land Purchase 356 Act. It allows sale to be expedited and it provides for land which is vested in the congested Districts Board to be sold. The second section is technical. It restrains alienation, the object being to give these men a good start in life by preventing their being hampered by antecedent debts. Clause 4 is the second branch of the Bill, and here the benefits of the Labourers (Ireland) Acts are extended to soldiers and sailors as such. This is the existing statute but amended in one or two small particulars. Firstly, the control of the interests of soldiers and sailors under the Labourers Act will by this Bill be vested in the Local Government Board instead of in local authorities; and the second Amendment is that, instead of one acre, which is at present the statutory minimum, two acres shall be substituted. I beg to move the Second Reading of the Bill.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(The Earl of Crawford).
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House tomorrow.