Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698067857594.pdf (Guyana)
_ 'u" 1,Y.--:?C~ :c_ .

c .... e ,: U - ¥ .4 &e,.

: ..• :-;-, ..... •r- .__....,_...,'!!"""",,..""

1037 Members LEGISLA'l'IVE COUNCIL Present 1038 LEG·ISLATIVE COUNCIL (Constituted under the British Guiana ( C onstitiition) ( Temporary Provisions) Order in Council, 1953) The Hon.

G. H. Smellie.

The Hon.

R. B. Gajraj.

The Hon.

R. C. Tello.

THURSDAY, 5Tli AUGUST, 1954 The Council met at 2 p.rn.

His Honour the Speaker, Sir Eustace Woot.

ford, O.B.E., Q.C., in the Ch;:tir.


Deputy Speaker;- Mr. W. J. Raatgever, C.B.E.

Nominated Officials : - Mr. W. T. Lord, I.S.O.

Mr. J. I. Ramphal.

Nominated Unofficials : Mr. W. A. Phang.

Mr. L. A. Luckhoo, Q.C.

PRESENT Mr. W. A. Macnie, C.M.G., O.B.E.

1 ,l His Honour the Speaker, $ir Eustace Gordon Woolford, O.B.E., Q.C.

Ex-Officio Members:- The Hon.

the Chief Secretary, Mr. F. D. Jakeway, 0.B.E.

(acting).

The Hon.

the Attorney-General, Mr. G. M. Farnum (Acting).

The Hon.
The Hon.

the Financial Secretary, Mr. W. 0.

Fraser, O.B.E.

N01ninated Members of Executive Council:- The Hon.

Sir Frank MeDavid C.M.G.

;· C.B.E.

(Member for Ag1·idi1: ture, Forests, a nd Lands and Mines).

The Hon.

P. A. Cummings (Mem ber for Labour, Health and Housing).

Tbe Hon.

W. O. R. Kendall (Mem• ber for Communications and Works).

Mr. C. A. Carter • .Rev.

D. C. J .

Bobb.

Mr. H. Rahaman.

Miss Gertrude H. Collins.

1\'Irs.

Esther E. Dey.

Dr. H. A. Fraser.

Mr. R. B .. Jailal.


Mr. Sugrim Singh .. ..

Clerk of the Legislature Mr.

I. Crum Ewing.

J '· Assistant Clerk ,of the Legislature- Mr. H. H .

Tross (acting) .

Absent:- Mr. T. Lee-OJ:\ leave.

Mr. E. F. Correia-on leave.

• II ~ - The Hon.

G. A. C. Farnum, O.B.E.

(Member for Local Government, S0cial Welfare and Co--ope,rntive Develop• ment).

· Lt. Col. E; J. Haywood, M:B.E., T.0 -- on leave.

The Speaker read prayers .

.

'fii \ . '

1039 Govt.

Notices 5TH AUGUST.


1954 Bills-Fi1•st Reading .

1040 The Minutes of the mee.ting •:>f the Couneif held on Thursday, 22nd July, 1!

)54, as printed and circulated, were taken as rNd and confirmed. '

ANNOUNCE,l\lJENTS LEAVE FOR THREE MEJ,IBERS Mr. Speaker : I have to announce that the hon.

Mr. Lee and the hon.

Mr. Correia who are leaving the Colony tomorrow, have been granted pe1•mis sion to be absent from the meeting:, of the 5th and 6th of August.

• , .
• , .

I have also to announce that Lt. Col. Haywood has been granted two weeks' leave of absence from tihe 31st of July.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS The following documents were laid on the table :-- (i) By the :Financial Secretary : The Minutes of meetings of the Fin ance Committee held on the 8th, 9th and 16th of July, 1954.

(ii ) By the Member for Commun ication~ and Works : Notice No.
1086 published the Gazette of the 10th July, 1954, notifying ;i correction in the Schedule, to the Air Mail (Rates of Postage) (Parcels) Order, 1954 (No.

32) which was laid in Council on the 17th of June, 1954. in British Guiana Credit Co-rporation Ordin ance, 1-954, whether such sums are pro vided from the proceeds of loans or other wise ,being charged at a ra.te of 3% per annum foi- a period of three years from the date of the establishment -of the Cor poration.
UNOFFICIAL NOTICES A.BOLITION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMEN'f Mr. Luckhoo gave notice of tj,e following motion:- Be it resolved : That this Honourable C:O'Uncil re commends to Government that a Select Committee be appointe'd to enquire into and repm·t on the abolition of capital punishment and with terms of reference that .permit recommendation of chanires in the law of murder, in and for the Colony of British Guiana.
forthwith ORDER OF THE DAY POST AND TELEGRAPH ( AMENDMENT) · BILL Mr. Kendall : I beg to move the first reading of t he Bill intituled "An Ordinance further to amend the Post and Telegraph Ordinance.''

~ Mr. Farnum seconded.

Question put and agreed to; Bill read a first time.

StlMMARY JURISDICTION (OFFENCES) (AMENDMEJNT BILL Mr. Farnum : I beg to move the GOVERNMENT NOTICES first reading of the Bill intituled- ,, 1~ INTEREST ON CREDIT CORPORATION LOANS .
The -Financial Secretary gave 110tice of the following motion:- Be it resolved: That this Council appro\les the in terest on all sums provided or allocated to the British Guiana Credit Corporation under the provisions of .

Section 20 of the ,, ~ C 'I~ "An Ordinance further to amend the S u mmary Jw·isdiction (O'ffonces) Ordin ance with r espect to the power of a Court of Summary Jurisdiction to impose cor poral pm1ishment."

· Mr. Smellie seconded.

9uestion put a n.d agreed to.


t< Bill read a fi r st time.

• • ~ -•f r .. 4 ,')jrr¥-'-4Pf __ ..,... ......

,...,., ___ ,... ~ 1041 ,-A'U:eitia·ry Fire .LEGISLATIVE C OUNCIL B1•igad,e ( A?ndt.)

B-ill 1042 WHIPPING AND FLOGGING ~AMENDMENiT ) B ILL Mr. Fa·rnum: I ask pennissiun ,, [ the Council to withdraw t he Bill in my name, intituled : "An Ordinance to amend the Whip ping and Flogging Ordinance.

with respec,t to its application to Juvenile Offenders."
lt has been found t hat the Bill is in conflict with an existing Ordinance, and it .

is therefore advisabl e tu with draw it until a later date.

Mr. Speaker: Is it the wish of t he hon.

Member be Member s allowed to withdraw the Bi ll ?

that There being no objection, the Bill was withdrawn .
CINEMAT0GRAPH ( AMENDMENT) BILL Mr. Cummings: As I indicated OJ1 the the last occasion when we sat, Attomey-General a nd myself have ,been con1,idering certain a mendments to t his Bill, intituled: "An Ordinance further to amend the Cinematograph Ordinance w ith respect to the granting of licences."

We are not yet finished, a nd I ask that the second read ing be deferred.

~l'here be,in,g second deferred.


reading· no objection, the Bill of the was AUXILIARY F IRE BRIGADE ( AMENDMENrr) ORDINANCE l rise t.o .

The Chief Secr etary : move t he second 1,eading of the Bill intituled: • "An Ordinance to- amen d the Auxil iary Fire Brigade Ordinance, 1952."

The Attorney-General s econded.

The Chief Secretar y: This Bill is quite a st raightforward one, its object · bei11g to remedy certain defects in t he original Ordinance which was passed in 1952.
The second Clause provides for the substitution .

of the word ··every" for the word "Any'' in Section 7 of the urigir,al ordin anee; otherwise the sense of thi:s Section of the Oridinance will nut be eh1rn ged.

.

Clause 3 of the Bill alte i-:s the provision fo1· a membe r of the Brigade reporting his absence.

Pre viousl,v, it wa,; such to obtain speeia l permission in or.der to leave Georgetown.

He h as now merely io notify the Superintendent t hat he is leaving Geor getown.
Clause 4, again, errors being 1·elates for remedied.

loss of 1·emecly"ing earnings by a member of t he Brigade d, 1e inj•ul'y sustained as a resu lt of ser ving with· the briga<le.

drafting Clause 5 provides ,compensation that he h ad .by to lo il'lness contracted or bodily ,.

l Hon.
l Hon.

Members might be glad to k now, now t h at I am dealing w ith this, th at I am informed by the Superjnten dent of the F ire Brigade t hat this aux ilia ry company which was formed _two yeaI·s ago is a very flouri shing concern and it has 26 member1,5_ A second land comp,iny is about to be, formed, and t here is also a fire float company which has put in very useful ser vice in fight ing fires, a nd I gatiher t hat members a r e all k een and wo11king well.

Question put, a nd agreerl to.


Bill r ead a second time.

C OUNCIL IN COMMITTEE ~ The Council into Committee to consider t h e Bill cla use by clause.

resolved itself · Clause 3- k,nendment of section 18 of th c P1'inc'ipal Ordinance.

Mr. Speaker : I was wondering: what would happen if s~veral members of t he Brig-ade got permission to lenve ..... .... ~ = , ., 'ii • ?

f r, l -... 1043 A uxiliary Fire 5TH Aunus'l', i954 Brigade (Amdt.)
B ill 1044 [Mr. Speaker] Georgetown simultaneously without others knowing, -and their services were needed.

The Chief Secretary: The objec~ is for t he Superintendent to know how many members of tlhe Volunteer Ser vice are a:bsent_.

Clause 3 passed.

Clause 4- A mendment of section 15 of the Princi(JJal 01·dinanc.e.

Mr. Luckhoo: I see in this Clause the close of quotation marks, but no opening.

There shou1d be opening quo tation m arks befor e the word "guilty" in sub-clause (b).
This is a small mat ter, but we had better be correct .

The Chief Secretary: I am obliged to the hon.

Member fo r drawing atten tion to this.

Clause 4 passed.

Clause 5- A 1nend-inent of sectio-n 16 of the P1·incipal Ordinance.

Mr. Ramphal: I rise to suggest that the word "may"-relating to t he provision t hat t he Governor in Council may grant compensation to a volunteer ;n cases of injury or loss of earnings, makes it discretionar:y, while in my view, it should be a matter of rig,ht.
I am suggesting to the hon.

mover of t he Bill that t he word "may" be replaced by the word "shal!".

The Chief Sec1·etary : I t hink the intention is tJhat t he Govera-ior in Coun cil would decide whether in each case the circumstances were such as to Just ify the grant of compensation.

The amount of compensation would be sub jected to legislation.

In effect the Gov ernor in Council would g rant compen sat ion in such cases wher e it has been shown t h at t he injury was as a result of service.

lVIr.
lVIr.

Ramphal: I am very grateful to the hon.

the Chief Secretary for his expl1matio11.

I take it that the Govern is rJght ment w ill always do what but we don't a lways have tihe Govern ment we may really want.

My conten t ion is t hat where a member of the brigade, throu gh no fault of his own contracts any take it that illness, I Govern~nt will then proceed to give something, but "may" appear,s to be .

only in r espect of granting compensa tion.


However, ;r am willing to be guid ed by the Chief Secretary in this.

Mr. Luckhoo: If it is obligatory 1 can see us facing a n umber of claims and court actions by people claiming to be entitled within t he meaning of this particular clause.

Whereas, if it wer e to r emain discret ionar y it would be for the Governor in Council to go through with it without recourse to law.
So often in Workmen's Compen sation cases one finds a number of people claiming that in the course of their employment they_ were injured, and quite often the facts do not bear out these allegations.

As quite ri ghtly, put, one has to depend on the bona fides of t he Governor in what it has t o do.

in Council The Chief Secretary : The Gover r.or in Council will, in fact, act in a bona f ide manner.

Clause 5 passed.
Clause 5 passed.

Titl'e and E nacting Clause The Attorney-General : May I sug gest a sMght amendment-the substitu tion of a colon-dash for the full-stop aft er th~ word's "Enacted by the Leg h;latn r e of British Guiana".

Question put, and agreed to.

Title and enacting clause passed aR amended.

Council resumed.

· ;-....;:.., ~......;...., -- -- .... 1045· Supplem1entary LEGISLATIVE: ·CouNcii.

Qstimat~lf 1046 .

The Chief Seci:etary I beg to move t hat the Bill be now r,ead a t hird tim._e a nd passed.
The Attorney-General seconded.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill read a third time and passed.

SUPPLEMENTARY E ST.IMATES- l\1ARCH0MAY, 1954 The Financial Secretary: I beg fo move the following motion- "Resolved, that ;this Council approves of the Supplementary Estimates for March and April/ May, 1!

}54, which have bee,n laid on the table."

- three categories The s upplementary schedule covers exp enditure amounting to $610,012.
That expenditure may be broken down foto Re-votes, $100,000; Loans, $54,353 and Recurrent Expenditure, $454,820.

Of this Recur rent Expenditure, Cost of Living allow ances represent a sum of $294,789.

This increase was necess ary on account of the cost of living having g.one up 11 points as the result of the removal of control on ground provisfons.

The Schedule of Expenditure has been carefully gone into by Finance Com mittee and, as far as I am aware, there a re no contentious matters in Schedule.
I move that the Council accept the Sch edule.

lVIr.

Ramphal seconded.

ADDITIONAL SCHOLARSHIPS Mr. Sugrim Singh: May I ask the hon.

Mover if in these supplementary est imates any provision is ma d.e for extra scholar ships, and if so what is the amount involved.
- The Financial Secretary: No pro vision is made in this schedule for addi tional scholarships, but provislon has been made in s upplementary estimates j is for $1,008 for •passed a few weeks ago, whi.cll l shall, be bringing forward in two or three weeks' time.

T~e provision made in ti1e t hat schedule a ward of 54 ad'ditional County Scholar ships.
The amount covers only provision for t he t erm commencing in September and ending sometime in December, but when all scholarships have been fully awarded whici1 would be at the end of five years the total cost would be some t hing like $15,000.

Mr. Sugrim Singh: I wish to con gratulate Government on t his - what I may describe as - magnanimous gesture in accepting the principle of having t hese 24 additional scholarships.
I think it is very timely, S ir, and I want to s ay that the.Sil extra scholar sh ips have been long overdue.

I must reiterate that if there is something which the small man has been crying for all along, it 'is these scholarshi:ps.

B ut; Sir, I cannot only congratulate Governmen t and omit my hon.

friend, the Hon, W. 0.

R. Kendall, whose idea it was to place before this Council in rather trying times, if I may say so, these schola r shi•ps.

If I may digress a minute, it to was W. 0.

R. Kendall.
R. Kendall.

The re was an " S" missing, and then he · became Minister of Communications and '\1/ orks .

That missing "S" has been supplied by t hose 24 extra Scholar.ships and now as Minister of Commuuica 'tions and Works my colleague is W. 0.

R. Kendall.
R. Kendall.

We cannot omit him in this, that point up As a school teacher of nearly 12 years' experience I want t o place before there a re other Mem this -Council - bers here who are teachers and ca n that in the primary bear me out - schools we come across excellent mater ial, children whose parents are unfor t.unately poor.

t h ese They scholarship ' examin.ations but on account the scnolarships of awarded they fail to secure one of them.

the paucity of t ry at \' ,.

,i ~ ..-i,: .,.

~ i 04 7.


S'U,ppfem enta1·11 5TI-l- AUGUST, 1954 W.stim,a.tes 1048 [Mr. Su grim Sing11 ·1 They are turned awa;v and, perhaps, that is the ('lid o{ ti1em, prom1s111g though they may be.

T~1ese 24 l'Xtra s cholarships a.re to some exten·t an in centive to the parents of these poor r i1ildren who go to our primary schools and; I am sure, who win these scholar ships and get into a recognized s<'cou dar y sci100I will win oth1•r scholarships and be abl1• t o rise to greater heights.
My owu vi,•w is, I would like to see in It tilis Colony free education for all.

may be a dream, but I hope that in foe passage of.

time we would reach that ~tage in our public affairs.

ti1ei1· I know as a teachl'r that .valuable talen r is going down the drain - to use the phrase of my hon.

friend, Mr. Macnie - because parp11ts are unable ci1ildren .

in ' secondary to put l'.chools, and there is !lo other oppor- 1 unity for them.

I wish to make one other point before I take my seat.
I t rust that this mouey will be well spent by Government ewn if after five years it costs $15,000.

As a Member of this Council I say it is money well spent and I trust that in tile future Gover11- me11t would make this a feature.

That is, next year we may see our way to make available some more extra scholar ships and 30 place before these un fortunate children who, due to no fault of their own cannot take advantage of higher education, au equal ciiancc to rise and achieve their ob.ieci ive.
Mr. Bobb: I would like to endorse foe remarks made by my hon.

friend in respect of the very kind gesture on t he part of the Government in awarding thes" additional scholarsi1ips, and also to rxpress my appreciation of the re ference made to the person with whom ihe idea of tilP addit ional scholarships originated.

I wisi1 to r<'fer to sometiiing t hat unhappily has recently come to my notice.
I think it is of interest to fois honourable Council if what I am going , • r, to say is· i rur, and t hat: something ought to be done about it.

I fully realize that we must be careful in increasing: few expenditure.

My good friend a moments ago said ti1at when expendi ture is iu a good cause we need have no .fear.
My illformation is, that over 30 years ago a certain sum was alloca ted to each Government County Scholar for books and personal allowance - $35 for books anci $125 persoual aliowmtcf' for five yPars.

My information also is, that within t he last ten j,ears the ordin incr eased and ary school fees have naturally the increase bPcame a ci1arge 011 Gov~rnment .

so far as these Com1ty Scholars are concerned, but there .

has bel'u no comme11surate increase in the r· have book and pt•1·sonal allowances.
IIOt had t ime to investigate the figures given to me, but they were given to me by sonwbody wi1ose word I can take.

It seems to me surprisillg foat after 30 years we cannot give our County Scholars more ti1an 48 cents per week pocket-money for five years and more than $7 per year for books.

SurelJ in buth insi ances t.he value of books and of pocket-money has gone up consider a-bl~·.

I hope, if that is true, the s itua tion would be corrected.

I woui<l very muci1 like to draw foe attention of the hon.
Member for Education and the to this hon.

the Financial Secretary I bring observation which this to Council.

H does not appear to m1· com nwnsurat e with the step wh ici1 is being taken now to increase the number of scholarships to allow the allowances to r emain the same aftrr so many years.

In vil'w of t he h igh rising cost a11d prices, es,pecia!ly the price of books.

The Chief Secretary: I will look into foe question raised by the hon.

Mrmber and see what can be done.

Quest·ion put, and agreed to.


Motion carried unanimously.

· • ..... ~ - - l II L .... 1049 Motion-Removal LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL of Controls 1050 REMOVAL OF CONTROLS Mr. Speaker : The hon.

Member, Mr. Luckhoo showed me one motion of which he gave notice, but I see he has another motion.

I Mr. Luckhoo : Tliere are two motions that I gave notice of.

Mr. Speaker I only saw one.

Mr. Luckhoo I did not show Your Honour the other one.

Mr. Speaker: The other is a very It deals with the important motion.
removal of Controls.

Do you mind giv ing formal notice tomorrow?

Mr. Luckhoo : I used the plural w hen I gave notice.

Because it is such an important motion I wish to have it lYiay I debated with the least delay.

enquire what is the procedure'!

Have I to show it to Your Honour before I give notice?

Mr. Luckhoo : I think Your Hon our would agree I was within my right when I rose and gave notice of ructions, Your Honour has referred to one, but I was referring to both motio11s at t he time.

l\Ir.
l\Ir.

Speaker : I never heard motions an<l I only saw 011e.

I give the hon.

Member tiw right whether he has it or not, hut it is one of those motions which are very controversial.

Mr. Luckhoo: I do not think Your Honour would find it very controversial in t his Council.

The removal ~,f Con trols would have ver.,· much su,pport from tile Members of this Council.

Mr. Speaker: I have looked at it.


In pr actice since I have been appointed Speaker I do not like any motion to be laid u11 the table until I have seen it.

I There is very good reason for it .

would be glad if the hon.

Member would reconsidl'r the fo rm of his motion I suggest that he in should do that.

iu terval.

ti1e l\lr.

Speaker : In some cases it is advisable to submit a motion before.

Council was adjourned until 2 p. m. followi ng day, Friday, 6th of the August.

·' ., • ~ ,I ..

If. '

"" ~.


: