Debate on The Police (Amendment) Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1854 · col. 4817

The Speaker: The House will come to order. The Bill stands for its third reading. 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 move.

Tomas Kessler (Westgau; The Continuity Party): 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. I sit for Westgau. The clerks there are few and the roads are long, and any officer the Bill appoints will spend a week finding the houses. 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 material provision is this: Penalty on conviction: a fine of 125 marka or 13 months. I ask the House to note it. I oppose the third reading. [Hear, hear.]

Fedor Kessler (Norrfeld; The Reed Party): Sir, The land pays for everything in the end. The Reed Party will vote as the land would vote if it could. An officer under the Act: the phrase appears in every Bill from the Interior and means a man with a book and a bicycle. I sit for Norrfeld. The clerks there are few and the roads are long, and any officer the Bill appoints will spend a week finding the houses. I oppose the third reading. [Hear, hear.]

Roderik Berfon (The Osmoor; The Reed Party): Mr. Speaker, Sir, I speak for the farms. A Bill that does not touch the farms is a Bill I can vote for with an easy mind; a Bill that does had better say so. 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 people of The Osmoor will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. My party will divide the House on the Bill. [Laughter.]

Konrad Holt (Kesselhöh; The Continuity Party): Mr. Speaker, Sir, Order and record. That is the whole of my party's programme and I do not apologise for its shortness. The people of Kesselhöh will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. The towns asked for it. The towns will pay for it. That is the usual arrangement and I do not quarrel with it. The clause is short and I shall not read it. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated. [Laughter.]

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 Speaker: The Ayes have it. The Bill is passed and will go to the Grand Chancellor for assent.

The remaining Orders of the Day were deferred and the House rose.