Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I beg to second the Amendment. I noted, in reading the OFFICIAL REPORT of the Committee stage, that the Minister stated that the case was one of practical effect, but that he thought it was substantially met by the Bill as it stood. I read the rest of his speech with some care, especially that part in which he said that a company would be able to apply for a "B" licence on the condition that...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I would like to ask whether the Minister will introduce the Amendment he has promised—the Amendment in a narrower form—in another place, because I am bound to say that in its existing form it still appears to be so wide that it would include a great many kinds of work in respect of which one would imagine a person ought not to enjoy immunity from having to procure a licence. I can well...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I beg to move, as an Amendment to the proposed Amendment, after the word "constructed" to insert the words "or adapted." I should like to support the Amendment which is before the House, and if it is to be accepted by the Minister I hope that he may see his way to accept the manuscript Amendment, which I have handed in and which I am now moving. I do this for practical reasons, and in order...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: It is possible that it might have served a more deadly purpose previously, if I had not been driving with exceeding care. It is now being exclusively used as a hearse, and it is so adapted that it can only be used for that purpose. I think that in these circumstances, whether my proposed words are inserted here or in another place, it would be well worth while for the Minister to give this...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: Yes, Sir; if I may be allowed to move these words, and if they would be accepted by the Mover of the Amendment, I beg to move, as an Amendment to the proposed Amendment, after the word "constructed," to insert the words "or adapted."
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: As the Mover of the original Amendment appears to think that my proposed Amendment might conceivably prejudice the consideration of his case, on which we have yet to hear the Minister's final decision, I beg to ask leave to withdraw it.
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: As I was a supporter of this Amendment, may I thank the Minister for accepting it, and say that in accepting it I think he is probably doing better than he himself anticipates. When I read the proceedings in the Committee, I understood the Minister as having said that the present general practice of the commissioners under the 1930 Act, when announcing their decision, was to give their...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I beg to move, in page 9, line 30, at the end, to insert the words: An application for renewal 4 an existing licence shall not be refused except on the grounds on which a licence may be suspended or revoked. This question was raised in Committee, and debated at some length, but I think that anybody who reads the discussions there will feel that it was very inconclusive, and that the reasons...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I beg to move, That it be an Instruction to the Committee on the Adelphi Estate Bill [Lords] to take into consideration the effect of the Bill on the architectural and artistic aspect add other amenities of the river front, and to hear such evidence thereon as the Committee may think fit and, in the event of their approving the preamble of the Bill, to make provision requiring that drawings...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I beg to second the Amendment. The hon. Member for South Kensington (Sir W. Davison) has put the arguments, which in my opinion are overwhelming, against a Second Reading of this Bill so fully and forcibly and so convincingly that I need not detain the House very long. But I want to reinforce what he has said. I would ask anyone to take a walk, as I have done and have persuaded one or two...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I do not think I am abusing any confidence when I say that one of the reasons why the hon. Member for Maidstone would have liked to have been here was, as he told me, that he infinitely regretted that pressure of business had been such that as yet a town-planning scheme did not cover Adelphi Terrace. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Richmond (Sir W. Ray) for intervening. We may differ on...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I am sure that all who have listened to the hon. and learned Gentleman who has just spoken will agree with him in one thing, and that is that none of us in this House take the year 1929 as an annus mirabilis to which we ought to go back. I do not think for one moment that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade did that. He took it simply as a measuring line before the slump began,...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: Now we are beginning to know what is the idea of hon. Members opposite with regard to what a conference should be—not necessarily that we should get anywhere, but that we might have an interesting discussion. Perhaps I might pass to one or two things that were said by the right hon. Member for Darwen (Sir H. Samuel), because when I listened to his speech, I thought what an extraordinarily...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: References have been made to the Select Committee and to the recommendations made by the Select Committee, and also to myself as its' Chairman. I think, therefore, that the House might wish to know what exactly those recommendations were. They do not correspoind precisely with the discription given of them either by the hon. Member for South Croydon (Mr. H. Williams) or by my hon. Friend who...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: That is quite true; the very fact that a year has passed since this body was set up pending legislation, and that it has been in action and no single complaint has been received at all, must, I think, show in the first place that the present state of affairs is tolerably satisfactory and that there has been no development within that year to warrant powers being asked for by a local authority...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I have not the information to answer my hon. and learned Friend. I have not myself heard of any complaints, and I understood that the body was acting to the general satisfaction. I should rather have imagined that I should have heard indications from those societies if they had had any substantial grounds of complaint. Further than that I cannot give him information. I do not think as things...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: We made a distinction between rural areas—defined as rural districts and urban districts with a population of less than 20,000— and urban areas, and in urban areas we recommended complete freedom, provided the type of display was suitable. The power which the Essex County Council seeks is to be able completely to prohibit in urban areas as well as in rural areas, and therefore it is at...
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: The hon. Member, I am sure, will not think that I am asking him anything unnecessary, but I do want to know what he means by the Government converting the wages of the people of this country compulsorily.
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I do not want to trap the hon. Member.
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland: I am sure that there is no one in this House who would take any objection to the speech which the hon. Member has just given us on the score that he has brought into it a plethora of statistics. We are very glad, indeed, that he has produced his statistics, though, of course, anyone speaking immediately after who has not had the opportunity of checking or considering them in detail is at a...