PRIVATE BILLS AND MILK SUPPLY 43 



provide that the central authority only should obtain parlia- 

 mentary powers ; that under no conditions should local autho- 

 rities be allowed to take any action not sanctioned by the central 

 authority ; and that compulsory slaughter should not take place 

 unless compensation be made out of the Imperial Exchequer." 



Meanwhile the Parliamentary Committee of the Central 

 Chamber had taken steps in the House of Commons to oppose 

 the inclusion of clauses relating to milk supply in Private 

 Bills, for it was found that all the clauses proposed by the 

 various Corporations differed from each other, and their 

 enactment would have caused great confusion to milk pro- 

 ducers. This action resulted in the Local Government Board 

 and the Board of Agriculture intervening, and these two 

 Departments agreed as to the nature and extent of the pro- 

 visions which they considered might properly be substituted 

 for the varying clauses to which the Chambers objected. 

 These proposals were considered by the Council on 28th 

 March, when the opinion was expressed that clauses based 

 thereon might, subject to the settlement of details, to pay- 

 ment of compensation from Imperial sources, to the omission 

 of the phrase " or exhibiting clinical symptoms of tuber- 

 culosis," and to the substitution of two Justices for one 

 Justice of the Peace, be accepted by the Council in response to 

 the demand for greater protection of the milk supply. One 

 reason why the Council agreed to these provisions being 

 inserted in private Acts (although they objected to the 

 principle of partial legislation being extended) was the hope 

 that possibly the experience gained in working them might 

 prepare the way for a general Act applicable to the whole 

 country. 



Eventually the actual text of the clauses which it was 

 proposed to substitute for those originally in the Bills was 

 considered at a conference, convened by the Parliamentary 

 Committee at the House of Commons on 18th April, when 

 there were present the President and other officers of the 

 Board of Agriculture, the Parliamentary Agent of the Local 

 Government Board, the Cattle Diseases and the Parliamentary 

 Committees of the Central Chamber, representatives of the 

 Municipal Corporations, and of the National Agricultural 



