Debate on The Public Health Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1953 · col. 14003

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

Arno Rusk (Minister of the Interior): I beg to move the third reading of the Bill, and I shall be brief. The town councils have asked for the Bill by their clerks. The Ministry has drafted it as the councils asked, and shortened it. The Bill provides as follows. Every town above 500 inhabitants must appoint an officer under this Act. I ask the House to pass it.

Berta Brenn (Norrfeld; The Assembly Union): Speaker, My constituents in Norrfeld wrote to me about the Bill, all 7 of them, and they were against it until they read it. I ask the House to consider the tradesman who will have to comply with this. He has not been consulted; he has been notified. The Bill says so in terms: Every town above 500 inhabitants must appoint an officer under this Act. The towns asked for it. The towns will pay for it. That is the usual arrangement and I do not quarrel with it. I shall vote against the Bill. [The Line!]

Willem Norrholt (The Ostrand; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, My constituents in The Ostrand wrote to me about the Bill, all 8 of them, and they were against it until they read it. I ask the House to consider the tradesman who will have to comply with this. He has not been consulted; he has been notified. The material provision is this: Every town above 500 inhabitants must appoint an officer under this Act. I ask the House to note 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 I shall vote for it.

Tobias Kolm (Westgau; The Workers' Front): Mr. Speaker, The mills of Kessel will feel this Bill before the Ministry does. I say so now so that nobody may say afterwards that they were not told. 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. The towns asked for it. The towns will pay for it. That is the usual arrangement and I do not quarrel with it. I have the Bill before me and the House has it before it. I shall vote against the Bill. [Interruption.]

Viktor Marrow (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Speaker, 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 people of The Capital District will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. 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: Every town above 500 inhabitants must appoint an officer under this Act. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated.

Ernst Brenn (Kesselhöh; The Assembly Union): Speaker, In Kesselhöh, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. 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 Bill says so in terms: Every town above 500 inhabitants must appoint an officer under this Act. The towns asked for it. The towns will pay for it. That is the usual arrangement and I do not quarrel with it. My party will divide the House on the Bill. [Shame.]

Arno Ostrand (The Capital District; 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'. The towns asked for it. The towns will pay for it. That is the usual arrangement and I do not quarrel with it. The members for The Capital District have met and are of one mind on the Bill, which does not happen often. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated.

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

The Speaker put the question. The Ayes were challenged and the House divided.

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

The House proceeded to other business.