Debate on The Hospitals (Amendment) Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1953 · col. 14037

The Speaker: The question before the House is that the Bill be now read a third time and do pass. I call the Minister.

Arno Rusk (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 Bill provides as follows. Every town above 1000 inhabitants must appoint an officer under this Act. The Bill amends The Hospitals (Amendment) Act, which the House will remember passing, and amends it in one particular only. I move.

Ernst Brenn (Kesselhöh; The Assembly Union): 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'. An officer under the Act: the phrase appears in every Bill from the Interior and means a man with a book and a bicycle. In Kesselhöh, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. I cannot vote for the Bill as it stands and I shall not. [Interruption.]

Arno Ostrand (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Mr. 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. My constituents in The Capital District wrote to me about the Bill, all 7 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. I have the Bill before me and the House has it before it. The Bill should pass and I shall vote for it.

Arno Rondmann (Westgau; 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. 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. An officer under the Act: the phrase appears in every Bill from the Interior and means a man with a book and a bicycle. I have the Bill before me and the House has it before it. The Bill should pass and I shall vote for it. [The Line!]

Rudolf Grau (Kesselhöh; The Workers' Front): Mr. 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 Workers' Front has looked for the working man in this Bill and found him in the schedule, paying. The clause is short and I shall not 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. We shall divide the House. [Hear, hear.]

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: The Ayes have it. The Bill is passed and will go to the Grand Chancellor for assent.

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