Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 25 Gorffennaf 1922.
I was rather hopeful that the Parliamentary Secretary would have given us such an explanation as would have cleared away all possible doubt in this matter. That he has not done. This Sub-section certainly opens up very grave possibilities. The Subsection does not deal with any single private company or any single municipal authority. It deals with some joint concern that may be composed of municipalities or a great private combine. Such a concern might find a very large deficiency to be met at the end of a year. If looseness is permitted there will be negligence, and negligence and looseness together will have the result that there will be no desire to make the income meet expenditure. If the concern is sure that on review at the end of the period, whatever has happened, it can make good that deficiency by calling upon those who are jointly interested in the concern, that is to say, the wholesalers, and that the deficiency can be allocated to the consumer, who has already paid the charges for the particular period, the possibilities are serious. That is the possibility which presents itself to my mind. If that be so, if this Sub-section is giving some covering power to the joint partners in the concern to recover from consumers who have already met their accounts then it seems to me entirely unnecessary, and the first Sub-section should stand by itself. It enables them to meet their charges over a period of years. If there happens to be a deficiency on the first year, then it will make them more careful in their estimate for the forthcoming year and enable them to so rearrange their charges that there will be less possibility of a deficiency at the next annual review. It appears to me, in the absence of some more lucid explanation, that the Amendment is thoroughly justified, and if the Mover forces it to a Division I shall be bound to support him.