I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. This is a simple Bill and purely an enabling one. Its purpose is to empower county councils, where they so desire, to raise an increased agricultural rate, not exceeding a total rate of 10d. in the £, for the purposes of the agricultural schemes operated by the county committees of agriculture. The annual income at present available for the service of the schemes of each committee of agriculture consists of an agricultural rate of not less than 2d. in the £ nor more than 7d. in the £ and a State grant related to the amount of the agricultural rate.
Since the enactment of the Agriculture (Amendment) Act, 1948, under which the maximum agricultural rate was raised from 4d. to 7d. in the £, all but two of the committees have obtained an agricultural rate higher than the former maximum. Several of the committees are now in receipt of the existing maximum rate of 7d. in the £ and several others are in receipt of a rate of 6d. in the £ or higher. The income of the committees now receiving the maximum rate of 7d. is in nearly all cases smaller than the estimated cost of their agricultural schemes for 1954-55. This position has arisen mainly because county advisory personnel have had to be steadily increased in recent years to cope with the demands for their services by the farming community, amongst whom there is a growing awareness of the importance of technical competence in efficient and economic farming. At present the total number of advisory officers in the employment of the county committees is 269. In 1948, the number was 185. It is clear that, in the years immediately ahead, unless the committees now receiving the existing maximum rate of 7d. in the £, and others that in the meantime will go to that figure, are enabled to secure a larger income in the future they will be forced to reduce the scale of their activities. Such a contingency would be most regrettable, having regard to the important functions devolving on the committees of agriculture.
The only solution of the difficulty is to amend the Agriculture Acts so as to empower the county councils, where they so desire, to raise an increased agricultural rate and to repeal the existing provision under which the maximum rate is fixed at 7d. in the £. The new maximum rate provided for in the Bill is 10d. in the £.
As I have already said, the Bill is purely a permissive one. It does not impose any mandatory duty on county councils to raise increased agricultural rates. It merely empowers them to do so if they so wish, or, in other words, it is being left to the county councils to decide for themselves whether they wish to exercise the additional power provided under this Bill.
