Debate on The Sunday Observance Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1918 · col. 10629

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

Viktor Wendl (Minister of Justice): I move the third reading. The Bill tidies a corner of the code that the courts have complained of for a generation. I read the material clause to the House. Penalty on conviction: a fine of 22 marka or 12 months. I move.

Oskar Brenn (Kesselhöh; 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 courts have asked for the Bill and the courts should have it. The people of Kesselhöh 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. [Laughter.]

Aurel Gristen (Westgau; The Assembly Union): Sir, 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. 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 Bill says so in terms: Penalty on conviction: a fine of 22 marka or 12 months. I have no quarrel with the Bill except that it comes twenty years late. I oppose the third reading. [Shame.]

Kurt Staffek (The Ostrand; 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? My constituents in The Ostrand wrote to me about the Bill, all 7 of them, and they were against it until they read it. The penalty is severe. The offence is common. The House may draw its own conclusion. The Bill says so in terms: Penalty on conviction: a fine of 22 marka or 12 months. I shall vote against the Bill. [Hear, hear.]

Hugo Brack (Norrfeld; 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'. 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. The penalty is severe. The offence is common. The House may draw its own conclusion. The material provision is this: Penalty on conviction: a fine of 22 marka or 12 months. I ask the House to note it. We shall divide the House. [The Line!]

The Minister replied briefly. The fee was as printed; the officer was as printed; the House had the Bill and could read it.

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

The Speaker declared the Ayes to have it and the Bill was passed.

The House then proceeded to the next Order of the Day.