It seems to me the section, with its reference to the 1932 and 1934 Acts, discloses a certain lack of clarity. The Bill as originally brought in was a Bill to amend the Control of Manufactures Acts of 1932 and 1934. After it had a Second Reading, a great many amendments were brought into it, and the Title was amended, but this section to a large extent refers, not to industrial development or the encouragement of external investment, but to the Control of Manufactures Acts, 1932 and 1934.
I should like to repeat what I said on the Second Stage. If we accept the Minister's view that there is a real need for foreign investment in this country, if we have a genuine desire to encourage that investment, we should say what we have to say about it in some different way than that in which we are saying it here. We should make it clear in one document. In practice, a person who may be desirous of investing money in this country must read the 1932 and 1934 Acts, discover what "qualified persons" means in one Act, discover it means something different in the other Act, and finally discover it means something different again in this Bill, when it becomes an Act. This type of legislation by reference is extremely ill-advised and the procedure adopted in this Bill indicates a lack of clear thinking, a lack of really knowing where we want to go. It is most inadvisable in this instance, where it would appear by the Title of the Bill that we are aiming at encouraging foreign investment, that this kind of section should remain in the Bill and that we should legislate in this way— by reference—rather than that we should begin in 1958 and put what we have to say altogether into one Bill.
I think the section is very cumbersome, very objectionable and will tend to make difficult the achievement of the purposes which it is alleged the Bill seeks to gain.