I have heard many a Minister being out of order, but have never heard one so consistently out of order as the hon. Gentleman was on this Clause. The Clause takes us back to the 1951 Act, which tells us that the expenses of a river purification board, so far as they are not defrayed out of revenues of the board under any enactment other than that section, shall be defrayed by the councils of the counties and large burghs. Subsection (2) means that there will be in respect of expenditure by the local authorities an increased demand on the equalisation grant.

I have not yet been convinced by the hon. Gentleman that this is right. He has not addressed himself to the argument. He began telling us what the rights in relation to primary water were and said that we were not giving any more rights to the farmer. When a farmer has only the right under common law in Scotland to take out of any river that runs through his property water for his own household for food and drink and for his beasts for food and drink, that is a very different matter from taking 15,000 gallons an hour for spray irrigation.

I suggest that the revenues that would defray the expenses arising under the Clause could well be taken in respect of the new right that we are giving. We have not had an answer to that. We have had no justification for passing this expense on to the ratepayers of county councils and large burghs. They are the people who have to pay. It is laid down that the expenses shall be defrayed by the councils of the counties and large burghs whose districts are comprised wholly or partly in the river purification board. There has been no justification for this in respect of spray irrigation.