Debate on The Digital Records (Amendment) Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1958 · col. 14441

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

Gregor Brenn (Minister of Finance): I beg to move that the Bill be now read a third time and do pass. The Ministry of Finance has costed the Bill and the sum is in the estimates. The duty falls where the printed Bill says it falls. I read the material clause to the House. Licences are issued by the Ministry of the Interior for a fee of 1124 marka. The House will note that the Bill is an amending Bill; the principal Act, The Kessel Digital Records Act, is not otherwise touched. I commend the Bill to the House.

Liesl Rusk (Norrfeld; The Continuity Party): Mr. Speaker, In Norrfeld, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. The Bill is in order. The Clerk has entered it. The Ministry of Chronology has seen it. I do not see what more the House requires. The material provision is this: Licences are issued by the Ministry of the Interior for a fee of 1124 marka. I ask the House to note it. The duty falls on the trade and the trade passes it on. The House knows this and votes for it every year. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated.

Sigmund Gatich (The Ostrand; The Assembly Union): 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 duty falls on the trade and the trade passes it on. The House knows this and votes for it every year. In The Ostrand, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. My party will divide the House on the Bill. [Interruption.]

Otto Keimann (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, The Union has no quarrel with the purpose of the Bill; its quarrel is with the fee, and with the officer who will collect it. I sit for The Capital District. The clerks there are few and the roads are long, and any officer the Bill appoints will spend a week finding the houses. The Bill is a money Bill and a money Bill is a Bill about who goes without. The clause is short and I shall not read it. I shall vote against the Bill. [The Line!]

Erna Gristen (Norrfeld; The Assembly Union): Speaker, The people of Norrfeld will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. 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 material provision is this: Licences are issued by the Ministry of the Interior for a fee of 1124 marka. I ask the House to note it. The Bill is a money Bill and a money Bill is a Bill about who goes without. The Bill should pass and I shall vote for it. [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 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 then proceeded to the next Order of the Day.