§ Order of the day for the Third Reading read.
§ LORD GAINFORDMy Lords, I think it right to say a few words in moving the Third Reading of this Bill. First I want to thank your Lordships for the way in which you have allowed this Bill a quick passage. This Bill carries out the recommendations of several Commissions and great efforts have been made by local authorities, traders and all those interested in water, whether as users of water or as fishermen, to secure the passage of the principle of this Bill. That principle is a simple one. It is that trade effluents containing polluted matter shall be placed in the sewers instead of into open rivers. The Press has ignored this Bill up to the present time, but it is one of the most important measures which I hope will be passed through both Houses of Parliament this Session. Not only is the purity of the water supply absolutely necessary for the community in general, but it is necessary for trade purposes and for a great number of other reasons with which I need not trouble your Lordships to-night.
The reason I want to say a few words at this stage is that this is a Private Bill promoted by a great number of organisations and associations who have met together and who have not only approved the principle of the Bill but have seen to it that every interest shall be properly protected. I feel that it leaves your Lordships' House as perfect a Bill to carry out its object as any measure that could be passed into law. At it is a Private Bill there is, however, a danger when it goes to another place that it may not get on to the Statute Book unless the members there realise what the Bill will do, how it will improve the condition of our streams and rivers, how it will prevent further pollution in many cases, and what advantage it will be to the community in connection with amenity.
There is another point I should like to mention. Hundreds and thousands of working men who to-day fish for coarse fish find the rivers getting more and more impure by reason of trade effluents discharging into them. On the Severn and the Trent, on the two rivers Ouse and on other rivers large bodies of men find their recreation and their enjoyment. 474 I would ask those who fish for trout on the lochs and streams of Scotland and fly fishers on the Test and Itchen to think how angry they would be if cyanide was placed in private waters where they get their enjoyment. In the same way I feel that working men who go fishing for coarse fish are entitled to some regard and to have impurities kept out of the rivers. I want members in another place to realise that this is a measure which will promote the purity of the streams of this country without doing any one any harm, and I hope that they will allow it to pass into law at the earliest possible moment. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a.—(Lord Gainford.)
THE EAEL OF LISTOWELMy Lords, I think I shall be voicing the general sentiment of your Lordships when I congratulate the noble Lord on the exemplary patience and tactical skill with which he has piloted this very valuable addition to our public health code through all its stages in this House. It remains for the Government, by providing the essential facilities in another place, to ensure that his efforts have not been in vain. I welcome his remarks on the Third Reading. I sincerely hope that they will be read in the OFFICIAL REPORT by members in another place and that the gist of his remarks will be widely reported in the Press.
I want to say a very few words on behalf of the London County Council, the Metropolitan Borough Councils and the Port of London Authority. These bodies have been obliged, owing to the special circumstances obtaining in the London area, to support the exclusion of this area from the territory in which the provisions of the Bill will become operative. At the same time they wish to indicate that if the Bill reaches the Statute Book they will follow the practical working of its provisions with the utmost attention, and if those provisions prove beneficial to the sewerage system in those areas whore they are adopted the London County Council will certainly consider what steps they would have to take in order to obtain similar provisions for the London area. That is to say they are waiting to see how the Bill works before they can make up their minds as to whether it may be necessary for them also to ask for legislation.
VISCOUNT GAGEMy Lords, I cannot give a precise undertaking as to what will happen to this Bill when it reaches another place, but it is obvious from the fact that the Bill has been prepared in close consultation and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health that the Government view it with a certain amount of sympathy. I can only add my congratulations to the noble Lord who is in charge of the Bill on its successful passage through your Lordships' House.
§ On Question, Bill read 3a.
§ Privilege Amendments made; Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.