Debate on An Act for the Better Ordering of Clockmakers' Registration

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1918 · col. 10631

The Speaker: Order. The Minister will move the third reading.

Willem Sarpeten (Minister of Chronology): I beg to move the third reading of the Bill, and I shall be brief. The Bill regulates what the Ministry already regulates and adds nothing to the record that the record does not already contain. I read the material clause to the House. Administered by the Ministry of Chronology. The Bill is in the hands of the House.

Ansel Ostrand (The Osmoor; The Reed Party): Sir, I ask the Minister one thing: does the Bill send an officer out to the farms, and if it does, who feeds him? The calendar is the calendar. The licence is a small thing to ask of a clockmaker, and the clockmakers have said so themselves. 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 support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated. [Laughter.]

Kurt Kessler (Kesselhöh; 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. I sit for Kesselhöh. The clerks there are few and the roads are long, and any officer the Bill appoints will spend a week finding the houses. I have no observation on the reckoning of years, which is the Ministry's business and not mine. I read the clause. Offences under this Act are tried before the Court of Chronological Offences. I oppose the third reading.

Hugo Mengen (The Ostrand; The Continuity Party): Sir, I sit for The Ostrand. The clerks there are few and the roads are long, and any officer the Bill appoints will spend a week finding the houses. The Continuity Party supports every measure that keeps the record whole and opposes every measure that does not. This one keeps it whole. The clause is short and I shall not read it. I have no observation on the reckoning of years, which is the Ministry's business and not mine. I shall vote against the Bill. [Shame.]

Friedl Lolich (The Sudmark; The Reed Party): Mr. Speaker, The members for the reed districts will ask, as they always ask, what the Bill means for the harvest and the causeways. The calendar is the calendar. The licence is a small thing to ask of a clockmaker, and the clockmakers have said so themselves. My constituents in The Sudmark wrote to me about the Bill, all 4 of them, and they were against it until they read it. We shall divide the House. [Hear, hear.]

Ludwig Marsch (Westgau; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, I ask the House to consider the tradesman who will have to comply with this. He has not been consulted; he has been notified. In Westgau, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. The calendar is the calendar. The licence is a small thing to ask of a clockmaker, and the clockmakers have said so themselves. The schedule is plain enough. Offences under this Act are tried before the Court of Chronological Offences. We shall divide the House. [Interruption.]

Ivo Reinholt (The Osmoor; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, The members for The Osmoor have met and are of one mind on the Bill, which does not happen often. 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. The material provision is this: Administered by the Ministry of Chronology. I ask the House to note it. The calendar is the calendar. The licence is a small thing to ask of a clockmaker, and the clockmakers have said so themselves. I shall vote against the Bill.

Egon Brenn (Westgau; The Continuity Party): Sir, The member opposite used the word 'irregular'. I have the Bill here and I have the register here and I find nothing irregular in either. I sit down. [Laughter.]

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 proceeded to other business.