The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of TRADE (Sir Philip Cunliffe Lister):

I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

This is purely a Consolidation Bill. It consolidates the Act which was passed last year, and all the preceding Companies Acts. It has been before a Joint Committee of both Houses, who have reported that it is purely a Consolidation Bill, and it comes to us with that certificate. In moving the Second Reading, I feel that it will be in accord with the wish of the whole House that a tribute should be paid to the Parliamentary draftsmen. When we consider the magnitude of the Bill and the fact that it represents about as difficult a piece of consolidation as any Parliamentary draftsman could be called upon to produce, and when we remember that this work has had to be undertaken at the same time as a great deal of other work in connection with many complicated Bills, that the Bill has passed the vigilant and careful scrutiny of the Joint Committee, and that the Joint Committee are able to present a unanimous Report that the Bill is a perfect piece of consolidation, it will be recognised how great a debt we owe, in all quarters of the House, to the Parliamentary draftsmen.