I move my amendment:—
In page 2, line 50, at the end of Section 3, to add the words "provided always that, in the case of a holding of ten acres or less, the public assistance authority shall not have power to acquire part of such holding without acquiring the whole holding and any buildings thereon."
The amendment does not go anything like as far as what we had down on the Committee Stage, but it does seek to secure that there should be left to the small holder of a house and a small bit of land some feeling of security that part of that holding should not be taken from him and buildings erected there in close proximity to his house which might mean the serious mutilation of his property and cause serious loss by depreciating the value of his property. I think the amendment suggests a reasonable line on which the Parliamentary Secretary might be prepared to accommodate us in the matter of this difficulty which we have raised. I am quite prepared to accept his statement that the cases of hardship that we indicate as possible are not likely to be sanctioned by him, but I suggest again, and I do not think it can be too often repeated, that legislation with that kind of a safeguard is not a proper type of legislation for us to pass. If that is the kind of intention in the mind of the Parliamentary Secretary, he ought to be prepared to accept some safeguarding clauses such as those we have suggested. If he would accept anything of the nature of what has been suggested, he will avoid the serious mutilation which, it might be feared, would arise in, we will say, a few cases. I trust the Parliamentary Secretary will see his way to relieve our minds of this feeling that we have of this possible danger existing in the Bill.