Before I formally move the Fifth Stage of this Bill, I would like to make a very short statement as to certain representations, made quite recently for the careful consideration of the Ministry, concerning certain persons who have claims for compensation, and in respect of whom it was difficult, if not impossible, for them to have made their cases known. Amongst those are some who feel it would not be safe for them to return to the vicinity in which the property they were interested in was destroyed, and after examination, which it has not been possible to give to this matter up to this, if it is made clear that such persons would suffer serious injustice or hardship, it may be necessary to introduce a Bill amending, to some extent, the provisions of this Bill in so far as such persons would be concerned; but it is to be understood that the general principles embodied in this Bill must govern compensation, and that in assuming, as we have, not alone enormous liability, but much greater liabilities than is shouldered by local authorities, we have done so on a certain definite basis, and that although valuable property has been destroyed, it was property which, to a large extent, was out of date, and not marketable to any material extent, if at all. One of the main considerations before the Government in this matter of compensation is the necessity of taking definite action immediately, and of relieving the vast majority of sufferers with the least possible delay. That is, perhaps, the main reason why it is too late at this moment to enter into instances of persons whose cases might have been, perhaps, the subject of particular consideration during the discussions on the Bill. With that statement, I move: "That the Bill do now pass."
There are some verbal amendments which it is necessary to have made. The first is in Section 1, to delete the word "the" in Sub-section (2) ["in respect of an injury to which the Section applies"] and to insert in lieu thereof the word "this."
