Debate on The Railway Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1854 · col. 4808

The Speaker: The question before the House is that the Bill be now read a third time and do pass. I call the Minister.

Casimir Tautmann (Minister of the Interior): I beg to move the third reading of the Bill, and I shall be brief. The Bill is a Bill about drains, roads and lamps, and I shall not dress it up. The towns need it. I read the material clause to the House. Provides 78250 marka for works between Hochstadt and Grautal. I ask the House to pass it.

Tomas Brenn (Westgau; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, The liberty of the subject is a large phrase for a small Bill, but I use it, because the Bill is small and the liberty is not. Westgau has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. An officer under the Act: the phrase appears in every Bill from the Interior and means a man with a book and a bicycle. The Bill says so in terms: Provides 78250 marka for works between Hochstadt and Grautal. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated. [Laughter.]

Albrecht Brenn (The Ostrand; The Continuity Party): Mr. Speaker, Sir, Nothing in the Bill disturbs the record. The Continuity Party asks only that the register be kept as it has always been kept. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. The Ostrand has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated. [Cries of 'Order'.]

Piet Hallin (The Sudmark; The Reed Party): Mr. Speaker, I ask the Minister one thing: does the Bill send an officer out to the farms, and if it does, who feeds him? The towns asked for it. The towns will pay for it. That is the usual arrangement and I do not quarrel with it. In The Sudmark, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. My party will divide the House on the Bill. [Shame.]

The Minister, in reply, said that the points raised were answered in the printed Bill and that the Ministry would consider the rest.

The question being put, a division was called for, and the members went to the lobbies.

The tellers reported the numbers to the Chair. The Speaker declared the Bill passed.

The House adjourned when the court resumed after the midday adjournment.