§ Mr. FIELDasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, in view of the fact that the Orders of the Board and of the British local authorities respecting Irish cattle have been pronounced to be illegal and unauthorised by anything in the Act of 1894 by various authorities arriving at this conclusion independently of each other, he will circulate as a White Paper the remarks of the Lord President of the Council in the course of the Debate on the Bill, of 1878 (from which the Consolidating Act of 1894 differs in no relevant detail, except Section 66, which operates adversely to the Board's Orders), making plain that the question of restricting importation of Irish cattle into Great Britain had arisen in the Report of a Commission, and had been distinctly considered by the Government, and that the said Bill was deliberately and considerately intended to confer no such power otherwise than as regards infected areas in Ireland as and when so declared by the Irish authorities?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe complete series of Parliamentary Reports is available for the use of hon. Members, and no useful purpose would, I think, be served by circulating selected passages without their context as suggested by my hon. Friend.
§ Mr. FIELDalso asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he intends to issue a circular or other notification to the British local authorities warning them that unless they can show due authority for their Orders in relation to Irish cattle, both such authorities in their corporate capacities and the individual members formulating and officials executing such Orders are liable to damages at the suit of any trader who can prove loss of cattle trading profits as a reasonable proximate consequence of their action?
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§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe answer is in the negative.
§ Mr. FIELDnext asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether the Board has considered the question of its legal liability to Irish cattle traders, unless able to uphold the legality of Orders contrary as well as to the considered intentions of the framers of the Act of 1878, as to the construction placed by various independent authorities on the Consolidating Act of 1894, considered by itself as an independent document; and, having regard to the fact that the Board by such Orders have treated Irish animals to all intents as foreign animals, whether he will be prepared to admit that the Irish cattle trade in its collective capacity as regards the damage which cannot be attributable to any individual trader is entitled to the same privileges as a foreign country, and advise the Government accordingly to afford facilities for submitting claim for such damage to the arbitration of an independent tribunal, as was the case of the Alabama claims made by the United States over forty years ago?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe answer is in the negative; noprima facie reasons having arisen for questioning the legality of any of the Orders of the Board.
§ Mr. PATRICK O'BRIENasked the President of the Board of Agriculture if he will state the date, the name, and the area affected by the earliest Order, Regulations, or other formal act of the central authority of the time being for any part of the United Kingdom under the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, or the previous Act of 1878, exercising the power of prohibiting and regulating the movement of animals in Section 22 (xvii.) of the said Act of 1894 or corresponding provision of the Act of 1878 in such wise as to place any area within their jurisdiction, not being, or by such formal act becoming, an infected place or infected area, under prohibition or restriction of egress of animals thereout; the earliest such Order or so forth exercising such power as aforesaid in such wise as to affect any area, not being an infected place or infected area, within the United Kingdom but outside the jurisdiction of the authority making the Order or so forth by prohibiting or regulating ingress to their area of jurisdiction or to any part thereof of animals from such area outside their jurisdiction by reason solely of their being animals from such outside area; and the 379W earliest such Order giving power to any one or more local authorities in the United Kingdom to affect an area, not being an infected place or infected area, within the United Kingdom but outside the jurisdiction of such local authority by such local authority prohibiting or regulating ingress in the manner mentioned as regards a central authority, and to state in each of the three cases whether the Law Officers of the Crown for the time being for every or for any part of the United Kingdom capable of being affected by each such new departure Order or so forth as under the heads referred to were consulted respecting the commercial and constitutional questions of Law involved; if so, whether the opinions of any such Law Officers are questions of law involved; if so, whether having regard to the importance of the questions involved in each such earliest exercise of power under the provisions referred to, he can state for what reasons such opinions were not sought?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANI regret that I am unable to supply my hon. Friend with the detailed information asked for in this question. Prior to the Board of Agriculture Act of 1889 the Diseases of Animals Acts were administered in Great Britain by the Privy Council. The Orders made by the Privy Council, for the purpose both of direct administration of the Acts and of delegation of powers to local authorities, appear to have been substantially identical in form and effect with the Orders since made by the Board, and in this connection I would refer my hon. Friend to the Orders mentioned in my answer to his question on this subject last week. But I have no official record of the exact circumstances in which the Orders were made, nor can I say whether or not the Law Officers were consulted.
— Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Queen Anne's Bounty. Grants of Perpetual Annuities. Grants of Capital. Grants of Capital. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. To Benefices in England … *11,948 16 0 216,107 13 4 101,555 0 0 1,896 10 0 To Benefices in Wales … … *720 0 0 31,626 0 0 13,843 0 0 133 0 0 14,698 6 0 247,733 13 4 115,398 0 0 * These Grants of perpetual annuities are subject to the condition that they shall cease immediately upon any transfer of the Patronage of the Benefices to which they are parable (unless by such transfer the Patronage be made public).