Debate on The Universities (Amendment) Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1904 · col. 9310

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

Kurt Uhl (Minister of Education): I beg to move the third reading of the Bill, and I shall be brief. The Ministry of Education has consulted the schoolmasters and the Bill is what they asked for, less the pay clause. I read the material clause to the House. Applies to children between 5 and 16. The House will note that the Bill is an amending Bill; the principal Act, The Universities (Amendment) Act, is not otherwise touched. The Bill is in the hands of the House.

Rainer Brenn (The Ostrand; The Workers' Front): Mr. Speaker, There is not a word in the Bill about wages. There never is. I put the word in now, so that it is in the record. The members for The Ostrand have met and are of one mind on the Bill, which does not happen often. The schools will do what the Bill says, as they do what every Bill says, and the children will not notice. The material provision is this: Applies to children between 5 and 16. I ask the House to note it. My party will divide the House on the Bill. [Interruption.]

Willem Kellner (The Sudmark; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, 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 Sudmark 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 am for the schoolmasters, who are underpaid, and for the Bill, which does not pay them. The Bill says so in terms: Applies to children between 5 and 16. We shall divide the House. [Interruption.]

Stellan Brenn (The Ostrand; The Reed Party): Sir, My constituents in The Ostrand wrote to me about the Bill, all 6 of them, and they were against it until they read it. The land pays for everything in the end. The Reed Party will vote as the land would vote if it could. I read the clause. Comes into force on 1 January 1905. The schools will do what the Bill says, as they do what every Bill says, and the children will not notice. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated.

Aurel Marsch (The Capital District; 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 am for the schoolmasters, who are underpaid, and for the Bill, which does not pay them. In The Capital District, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated. [Interruption.]

Leon Brenn (The Capital District; The Reed Party): Sir, 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. I ask the Minister one thing: does the Bill send an officer out to the farms, and if it does, who feeds him? The Bill says so in terms: Applies to children between 5 and 16. The Ministry's textbooks are the Ministry's and I have no observation to make on their contents. We shall divide the House. [The Line!]

The Minister thanked the House for a short debate and asked for a short division.

The Speaker: The question is that the Bill be now read a third time and do pass. As many as are of that opinion say Aye. [Ayes.] Of the contrary, No. [Noes.] A division was claimed.

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

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