Debate on The Telegraph (Amendment) Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1918 · col. 10622

The Speaker: The Order of the Day is the third reading of the Bill. The Minister has the floor.

Bruno Fenn (Minister of the Interior): I move the third reading. The town councils have asked for the Bill by their clerks. The Ministry has drafted it as the councils asked, and shortened it. The printed Bill says it better than I can: Licences are issued by the Ministry of the Interior for a fee of 22 marka. The House will note that the Bill is an amending Bill; the principal Act, The Telegraph Act, is not otherwise touched. The Bill is in the hands of the House.

Aurel Kaltz (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Sir, 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. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. My constituents in The Capital District wrote to me about the Bill, all 3 of them, and they were against it until they read it. The Bill should pass and it will. [Interruption.]

Magnus Brenn (Norrfeld; The Assembly Union): Sir, The Union stands where it has always stood: for the towns, for the trade, and against any clause that begins with the word 'licence'. The people of Norrfeld 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. The Bill should pass and it will. [Hear, hear.]

Arno Ostmann (Kesselhöh; The Workers' Front): Sir, The people of Kesselhöh will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. The Front supports the Bill where it helps the families of the Line and opposes it where it charges them. I have the Bill before me and the House has it before it. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. The Bill should pass and it will. [Interruption.]

Egon Brenn (The Ostrand; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, The Union stands where it has always stood: for the towns, for the trade, and against any clause that begins with the word 'licence'. My constituents in The Ostrand wrote to me about the Bill, all 3 of them, and they were against it until they read it. 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: Licences are issued by the Ministry of the Interior for a fee of 22 marka. I support the third reading. [Shame.]

Ernst Stanvo (The Osmoor; The Continuity Party): Mr. Speaker, 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. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. The Osmoor 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 shall not divide the House on it. [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 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 House adjourned at half past 2 in the afternoon.