HURLEY AND DISTRICT ELECTRICITY SPECIAL ORDER, 1925. (Hansard, 18 December 1925)

THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE

My Lords, I beg to move that the Special Report of the Special Orders Committee he considered and adopted. Your Lordships will remember that when this matter was discussed in the House on Tuesday last, the noble Marquess the Leader of the House carried a Motion referring this Order back to the Special Orders Committee and calling upon us to report whether any further Parliamentary inquiry is desirable before the House proceeds to a decision on the Amendment to reject the Order which is before your Lordships. The Report of the Committee states that in their opinion no further inquiry is necessary and recommends a certain Amendment to your Lordships to which I will refer in a moment.

I think I am acting in accordance with the wish expressed by those who were present at the Committee yesterday—it was a well-attended meeting, at least ten members being present—if I amplify a little the short Report which is before the House. I should explain the reason why we recommend that no further inquiry is necessary. Both parties were in agreement in stating that no further Parliamentary inquiry was necessary. The representatives of the Gas Company stated so openly and frankly, and the representative of the Order, that is, the rival Company, stated that, though he did not in any way fear a further inquiry, yet he submitted that no further inquiry was necessary. I do not think any of your Lordships would desire to force an inquiry on two unwilling contestants; hence our Report.

I need not tell your Lordships that that was not the whole of our discussion. We could not go fully into the merits; we did not want to and we were not in a posi- 1640 tion to do so. If we had gone into the merits no doubt we should be sitting still. But certain salient points did come up. The first clear fact is that the scheme under the Order is still incomplete. A further Order, if not further Orders, will be necessary, but we understand that they are in progress. Secondly, it became quite clear that the promoters of the Order do desire to carry out their obligations through the medium of what is called a "bulk supply scheme" and not through a small separate generating station. This is a matter which will no doubt interest the noble and learned Viscount opposite.

The promoters desire—and they have no other desire—to co-operate with Parliament in the policy laid down of generating over large areas. They have an agreement signed and naturally the question was put at once to them: Why have you got Clause 8 under which you are authorised to set up a generating station? The promoters quite frankly said that at an earlier stage a discussion had taken place as to whether this clause and the schedule relating to it should remain in the Order. It was thought at that time that they should, but the necessity for that clause and schedule had now disappeared. They stated that they would offer no objection whatever if Parliament in its wisdom thought it wise to strike that clause and also the accompanying schedule out of the Order. I appeal very strongly for this Amendment to be made.

I need not remind your Lordships that it is opposed to the decencies of Parliamentary practice to give to parties powers that they do not require. If we approve of them we give powers which are necessary for their scheme. We never give them powers that they may want, and we certainly never give them powers that they do not want. For this reason alone I hope that this Amendment may be made when we resume the debate next Monday. If this Amendment is made two things will be clear. One is that Parliament will have shown its adherence to the general principle of bulk supply, which is consistent with its previous attitude. We shall also be doing this. We shall be approving a scheme which is quite different from the scheme that was rejected earlier in the year by 1641 Lord Clarendon's Committee, whose action on that occasion has been amply vindicated by all that I have heard in connection with this matter since.

But if that Amendment is made in the Order then, speaking for myself, I should not feel justified in further resisting the passage of the Order, and say that now in the interest of saving Parliamentary time. Perhaps it would have been more in accordance with procedure that I should have made this clear next Monday, but I take the opportunity now, as I am addressing your Lordships, to make my position clear at once.