The Assembly of Schwartzistan · Official report · Session of 1854
Debate on The Sunday Observance Act
In the Chair
Josef Lenz, Speaker of the AssemblyMoving the Bill
Ottmar Hallin, Minister of JusticeThe official report of the sitting as printed by the Clerk of the Assembly. The bill and its stages.
The Speaker took the Chair at the rising of the court. Prayers were read. The Order of the Day was read by the Clerk. The Clerk read the Order of the Day: the Bill entitled The Sunday Observance Act, third reading.
Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1854 · col. 4800
Wednesday 18 October 1854
The Speaker: The Order of the Day is the third reading of the Bill. The Minister has the floor.
Ottmar Hallin (Minister of Justice): I beg to move the third reading of the Bill, and I shall be brief. The Bill tidies a corner of the code that the courts have complained of for a generation. The Bill is in the hands of the House.
Ottmar Hukwitz (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, Sir, Every Bill of this kind adds a form, a fee and a clerk. The Assembly Union would like, once in a session, to pass a Bill that removes one. The penalty is severe. The offence is common. The House may draw its own conclusion. I sit for The Capital District. The clerks there are few and the roads are long, and any officer the Bill appoints will spend a week finding the houses. My party will divide the House on the Bill.
Lorenz Brenn (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, I ask the House to consider the tradesman who will have to comply with this. He has not been consulted; he has been notified. The courts have asked for the Bill and the courts should have it. The people of The Capital District will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. The Bill should pass and I shall vote for it. [Shame.]
Hendrik Marsch (The Capital District; The Continuity Party): Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have read the Bill for what it does to the record, which is the only reading that matters, and it does nothing to the record. The penalty is severe. The offence is common. The House may draw its own conclusion. The people of The Capital District will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. I cannot vote for the Bill as it stands and I shall not. [Cries of 'Order'.]
The Minister thanked the House for a short debate and asked for a short division.
The question being put, a division was called for, and the members went to the lobbies.
Division
| Ayes | 42 |
| Noes | 21 |
The tellers reported the numbers to the Chair. The Speaker declared the Bill passed.
The House adjourned at ten in the forenoon.
The Bill as passed
- Passed by the Assembly by 42 votes to 21.
- Penalty on conviction: a fine of 12 marka or 20 months.