COMMONS AMENDMENT. (Hansard, 3 August 1943)

§ THE EARL OF MUNSTER

My Lords, the last Amendment which stands on the Paper perhaps requires a very short explanation. Paragraph 3 of the Third Schedule to the principal Act provides that on a review of valuation only one expert witness can be called by any party to give evidence as to the value of the holding, unless, of course, the referee shall otherwise direct. Paragraph 3 of the Third Schedule to the present Bill provides that unless the referee shall otherwise direct, no witnesses of any kind can be called to give evidence, apart from the single expert witness for whom provision is made in the principal Act. My right honourable friend's attention has been drawn to the fact that this provision is really valueless, because the 933 referee is quite unable to tell whether the evidence of non-expert witnesses is really material until he has heard them, and consequently he will have to allow them to be called in nearly every case. That is one point.

The second point is that paragraph 12 of the Third Schedule to the principal Act merely restricts the number of expert witnesses who may be called to give evidence as to the value of any particular holding, which means that any number of expert witnesses can be called to give evidence as to any other matters. It is now proposed to substitute for the existing paragraph 3 of the present Bill a new paragraph, which makes it quite clear that one expert witness only may be called, whether as to the value of the holding or otherwise. I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.