§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AIR (LORD THOMSON)My Lords, in moving the Second Reading of this Bill I may explain that its object is to confirm certain agreements entered into between the Admiralty and the Burgh Council of Invergordon, also between the Admiralty and the County Council of Ross and Cromarty. Briefly, the situation is this. In 1914, at the request of the Admiralty, the Invergordon Burgh Council increased their water supply in order to meet naval requirements, and springs and sources were tapped for that purpose whose original destination of supply had been intended for two villages in that district. The Admiralty now wish to get quit of their commitments in this matter, and three agreements have been drawn up, one between the Admiralty and the Ross and Cromarty County Council disposing of certain pipes, another between the Admiralty and the Invergordon Burgh Council disposing of other pipes, and a third between the Invergordon Burgh Council and the Ross and Cromarty County Council arranging the matters between them. Your Lordships will find those three agreements set forth in the Schedule to this Bill, and the final arrangements which were necessary. It has been necessary for those agreements to get statutory authority because, while a burgh council can distribute water in its own area, and a county council can do the same in its own area, a burgh council, it is held, cannot supply water outside its own area to a county council. I trust that explanation will be sufficient. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2ª.—(Lord Thomson.)
§ On Question, Bill read2ª and committed for Monday next.