§ LORD TEMPLEMOREMy Lords, I beg to move that the Special Order as reported from the Special Orders Committee be approved with modifications.
§ Moved, That the Special Order, as reported from the Special Orders Committee yesterday, be approved, with modifications.—(Lord Templemore.)
THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF ONSLOW)My Lords, perhaps I ought to say a word upon this Order because the circumstances are rather peculiar. This Gas Order came before the Special Orders Committee yesterday, and it was discovered that it was not drawn up in the correct form. There were certain errors and therefore it was probably ultra vires. I should certainly have been bound to report to your Lordships that it was ultra vires. Modifications were proposed by the Board of Trade to get over this difficulty, but they would have necessitated the omission of certain parts, not very large ones but fairly important ones, of the area which it is proposed to serve. The difficulty might have been got over in two ways. One was by adjourning the Order and allowing these areas to be brought in correctly—notices issued and so forth—but that was not very convenient, because it would have delayed the supply of gas to other people. So a compromise, or way out, had to be discovered, by which the modification proposed by the Board of Trade could be made, and the company undertook to promote another Special Order at once to deal with the areas omitted. I thought I ought to tell your Lordships this, because it is important that the Special Orders Committee should go into these matters and 680 see that the Regulations are properly complied with.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.