The second reading of the Development Bill was moved on
Thursday by Lord Carrington in one of his jocular, optimistic speeches, which stirred the House to frequent laughter. We may note that in reply to questions Lord Carrington defended the power of acquiring a strip of land on each side of the new roads on the ground that this land would enormously increase in value, and thus enable the Government to recoup themselves. Lord Lansdowne ex- pressed the hope that it would be possible in Committee to safeguard the Parliamentary control of the huge expenditure which would be possible under a Bill of such enormously wide scope. Commenting on the proposal that only two of the Commissioners should be paid, Lord Lansdowne observed that to make projects of this kind work successfully they would have to discover laborious archangels of private means. Ultimately the Bill was read without a division.
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