PUBLIC WORKS. THE DEVELOPMENT BILL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1909, Page 7

PUBLIC WORKS. THE DEVELOPMENT BILL.

READ A SECOND TIME. SOME OPPOSITION STRICTURES. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright (Received September 8, 8.20 a.m.) LONDON, 7th September. In the House of Commons Lord Robert Cecil, Conservative member for East Marylebone", moved the rejection of the Government's Development and Road Improvement Funds Bill, which covers the whole field of industrial and commercial activity. Lord Robert said one clause of the Bill allowed the Government compulsorily to acquire any land, and there was nothing to prevent the nationalisation of all the railways. He quoted from Mr. Redmond's speech at Arklow, reported in The Times on^Bth July. ■ Mr. Lloyd-George, Chancellor of the j Exchequer, interjected a denial of Mr. i Redmond's statements relating to tne drainage of rivers and the nationalisation of Irish railways. Lord Robert Cecil, continuing, said ' that at any rate the speech showed what was expected of the Development Bill, which was part of a gigantic scheme to bribe the electorates. Other Opposition speakers, together with Lord Robert Cecil, warmly approved many objects of the Bill, though they disapproved the machinery clauses. They instanced colonial experience of "roads and bridges" members. Mr., Lloyd-George, in replying, said that his purpose was to systematise the various kinds of assistance for. fuller works. The Advisory Committee -would not be composed of partisans, but would command the confidence of both political parties. The Bill was read a second time by 137 votes to 17.'

In his speech at Arklow Mr. Redmond stated that out of the Development Fund which it was proposed to create he had reason to know that within the next twelve months money would assuredly be provided for the drainage of the> BaTcw and the Barm, and other r:\ers wiu^h were spreading desolation a,nd ruin by their flooding. Money would slso he available which could be used to facilitate the purchase and amalgamation of Irish railways under an Irish local authority. Therefore he looked forward to the Development Bill as a means of meeting some of the greatest social and economic needs of Ireland in the near future. These things the Irish party were supporting, and he appealed to the intelligence of Ireland to support their action.