I move the Second Reading. This Bill is an amendment to the Bill of 1928, which was a Bill passed in that year which gave the cattle trade statutory powers to collect a levy on exported cattle of so much per head and also on pigs and sheep. There were regulations laid down providing that the fund should be managed by trustees and how it was to be invested; and out of that fund the trustees were authorised to pay compensation for animals slaughtered owing to the Foot and Mouth Disease—for animals landed in Great Britain or exported from this country. The fund has been growing very steadily since and at the present time it amounts to over £20,000. The only loss that exporters suffered during the intervening period was during the scare regarding Foot and Mouth Disease owing to animals being detained on the other side before they were released. During their detention the owners suffered certain losses with regard to lairage and the feeding of those animals, and the owners think that they might ask for compensation for that loss, seeing that the fund is so healthy, and seeing that they have been paying into the fund now for practically four years and that nothing has been paid out. There has been no big outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease. This Bill seeks to give power to pay compensation for the cost of the detention of animals in such cases—compensation such as was given under the old Bill in cases where animals were slaughtered. The Bill also seeks to give power to the trustees to allow the fund to go to £40,000 instead of the £20,000 previously authorised. It is quite a non-contentious Bill. It was introduced at the request of the cattle trade in the country, and it might possibly be regarded under these circumstances as a Private Member's Bill. But as the previous Government adopted the Bill of 1928, I felt that the precedent might be followed and that the Government should now pilot through the amending Bill.
Detained Animals (Compensation) Bill, 1932—Second Stage.
Question—"That the Bill be now read a Second Time"—put and agreed to.
Final Stages ordered for Thursday, 2nd June.