§ Order of the day for the Third Reading read.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA AND BURMA (THE EARL OF MUNSTER)My Lords, on the Second Reading of this Bill the noble and learned Viscount, Lord Maugham, made a plea for the abolishment of the bucket carrier and asked whether a scheme could be devised by which Army motor vehicles could be purchased at the end of the war for water carrying use in remote districts. My right honourable friend is grateful for this suggestion, and he is examining the possibilities for making some such arrangement but, at the same time, bearing in mind that this 990 is primarily a piped water Bill and that the use of water carrying vehicles will not absolve the local authority from the duty of providing a piped water supply wherever possible. Local authorities have sufficient power, subject to my right honourable friend's concurrence, to purchase such vehicles, and arrangements have been made for water to be supplied by cart or lorry in a number of areas suffering from a long spell of drought. My noble friend will be aware that the purchase of these vehicles is likely to put an additional financial burden on local authorities and what, therefore, is really required is a motor vehicle which can be used to serve other purposes than merely the supplying of water.
My noble friend Lord Brabazon graphically described the damage constantly done to highways when mains are laid or repaired and suggested that mains and sewers should accordingly be set on the side of the road under the grass verge or the pavement. My right honourable friend has the greatest sympathy with this proposal, which certainly voices the views of the more enlightened water and sewerage engineers and also the road engineers. This problem has been exercising the minds of our own people as well as those in other countries, notably America, but no general solution has yet been found; nevertheless my right honourable friend, without making any extravagant promises about the degree of achievement, will constantly bear in mind the noble Lord's suggestion during the time he is examining plans submitted to him by the local authority under the terms of the Bill. I beg to move that the Bill be now read a third time.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a.— (The Earl of Munster.)
§ On Question, Bill read 3a and passed.