PARLIAMENTARY NOTES,

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1848, 23 May 1888, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES,

« (From oue own Correspondent.) Wkilikgton, May 22, This afternoon the Opposition, it accordance with a resolution adopted al their meeting this morning, followed the lino of policy adopted on Friday, whet the motion for consideration of the pro* posed amendments, was to come on. There being only about forty members m the House at the time the raction was not called. By way of giving the Government An opportunity of making some etatcmanl on the matter, Mr O'Cailaghan has given notice to ask the Premier to-morrow why the proposed new rales of procedure bare not been referred to the Standing Orders Committee, and whether it is the Intention of the Government to recommend that they be referred to that Committee. The greater part of this afternoon's ■itting was oooupied with the discussion of the statement made by Sir F. Whitaker on Friday as to the insolvency of the colony, which was brought bsfore the House m the shape of a question asked by Mr Lance. Grca h surprise was naturally manifested when the Premier stated that the Attorney- General informed him that he had never made the Btaeraeot attributed to him, and them was v g od dea of amusement when the Premier explained that Sir Frederick wished to infer that if the loan was not agreed to, Government personally would have to become insolvent. The debate, however, took a different tarn when the Premier asßurtd tho Souae that there was no cause whatsver of alarm as to the finano(al position of the colony, and that the construction put upon the epeeoh of the Attorney-General was likely to •fleet the credit of the colony. Members of the Opposition who followed pointed out that they did not wi&h to In any way reflect on thß credit of the olony, though they did not seem to apprec<a'e the explanation of the Attorney-General on the matter. The Premier refused to entertain a proposal by Mr Seddon to postpone all Bills for a week, until the Financial Statement had been brought down, and eventually, after a little smoothing over on both sides, the matter dropped without any lotion being taken, In view of the financial agitation now going on, a novel proposal is made by Mr Monk, who proposes to the Government that they should invest for twelve months ■11 moneys that can, out of loans, be freed from existing contracts, end that next cession the House ba invited to consider whether such moneys shall remain m further abeyance or not. The same gentlemen Is also bringing under the attention of the Colonial Treasurer, the importance of refraining from the imposition cf further taxation while the Colony has to pay interest on unproductive expenditure. In view of the alleged great saving made In the Educational vote by the adoption of strict instead of working averages aa the basis of payment' of oapitation, Mr Hutchkoa will to-morrow ask the Min'ater of Education whether Government will afford the House an opportunity to discuss his Education report, and to reconsider the legislation of last session, which permitted the adoption of a stdat instead of a working average. In the same connection, Mr Goldie has given notioe to ask tha Minister of Education whether he is aware that very large areas of land, supposed to be over 100,000 acres, estimated to be worth £116.000, vested m the Commissioners for educational purposes, are still unleaied ; and, if so, If he will Inform the Houbo whether any effort has been made to lease it, or if not, why not. With a view to putting a stop to the continual iDflax of quacks and impostors Into the colony, Mr O'Oallaghan is urging the Government to take into consideration the " advisableness of amending the Medloal Practitioners' Act, 1869, m the direction of subjecting to a penalty all persons who, under the designation of fslth-healing, extract fees from weak minded or ignorant Invalids." A return presented tonight showing the •mount of land still m poßßeesion of the Government, which was purchased out of loan, and is valued at £1,115,644, gives the following particulars :— Tbera are 3,829,345 acres still m possession of tho Government, distributed as follows : Auckland, 1,962,826 acres ; Taranakl, 453,468 acres; Ha<vke's Bay, 646,600 acres j and Otagu, 1,348.451 aores. Of this amount, all but 9500 aores was acquired from the Nativee. A return presented to day of pastoral runs, the licensee of which fall m between January 1, 1888, and lecember 1, 1890, shows that there are 4,238,548 acres of land m that category, tho rental from which is £80 825, di tribu.ted as follows : —Nelson, 71,767 acres, £167 18a sil ; Marlborough, 52,259 acree, \£lß4 15a 2d ; Canterbury, 2,835,819 acres, £48,248 2a 2d ; Otago, 986,233 acres, £31,827 7s 8J; Southl nd, 12,540 acres, £83 Is sd ; Weetland, 280,120 acres, £315 la Bd. It is expected that the Inter-Colonial Conference on the Chinese question will be held next month. : Dr Filoheit will act with Mr Walker us Opposition Whip, The Hon G. F, Richardson will ehortly move forja Committee to deal with the rabbit question. WajajNOTON, May 23 Rumor has It that a precedent was being dieooveted by wbioh the rules of procedure can b 9 brought on without two-thirds of the Hoaae being neoesaarily present, but is not likely to be followed up at present. The Native Minister will today introduce a batch of BIIIp, Maori Real Estate Management, Native L»nda, Native Fraud Prevention Act Amendment and Native Land Coart Amendment Bills. The Waste Lands Committee to-day considered a petition of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company nnd the Otago Central Bill. With ref. rence to the latter measure I loam that the evidence of the Surveyor-General is dead agalnßt the line m ooosequenca of which some ellght alterations may be necessary m tho Bill' though there is no fear of Its passing. Mr Blaic giveß evidence this morning. There is a good deal of comment on the sfatencent of the Colonial Secretary that st the' request of the Opposition' he had decided to ask for an adjournment of the debate on the Electoral Bill. From wh&t I can learn not a slnglo Opposition member approached the Government ou the matter, and, rb a mattor of fact, it had been decided at the ciucus m the morning to move &n amendment on tbe second reading to postpone it for a fortnight. This WBS kept a dead secret and s Government member, either Mr Mcuteltt or Mr trcoblo Mackor z'o. was to move ac amendment. It is not probable that th< party would go to the Government whe fceard of what was to be done and. to save

defeat p Btponei the seoand reading h m vf. A d«pu'- tion consiiting of Mews Fe'dw-ck, Cowan, Hodgkin»on and Ward vaited on tie Minister of Lands m refer- ' nca to several matters of locnl nnd geiifr.'l irrportanco this morting. Amongst other queßti^us the deputation! brought up the mniUr of allocation of 250,000 acres for iJoepital aud Charitable Ad purposes, but Mr Golde haß already a queition on the Order Paper m re ference to the mutter. The Miaiat rde cir'ei iot to givo any rep'y m the meantime. AM»i;tl«nw»s altio drawn lo the f-ct that during the reoeaa when collect te'egrama on purely pabMo baslness *re sent to the MlnloterF, th<y wtre refused by Ih9 Government, but no satis factory reply In regard to the matter was received A curious fact is noted m regard to the dlecn?fllon over Sir F. Whltaker's statement In the Council yesterday, that a Legislative Councillor who waa a Minister of the Crown, Bent a written public apology to the Lower House to be read by his colleague which was a position never previously known In the Parliamentary history of the colony. Some fanny things occurred last night during the debate on tha motion for postponing the E'ectural Bill. One of the members referred to the reafc of the Mlnletry outside of Sir H. Atkinson as gentlemen, called by courtesy his colleagues, and Mr Seddon said he wiahed itwas within tno pewer of Parliament to order that there bo laid on the table a copy of the resolution passed m the Cabinet, by which no Mlnietjr shall be allowed to speak unlcsa by permission of the Premier, and they were generally referred to as being gagged. It is noticed that tfheuever there ia little important busineEß before the House which has been tb.9 caee nearly all this session, Sir fl, Atkinson retires to his private residence where he Is busl'y engaged m the preparation of the Financial Statement. During his absence Sir John Hall distinctly assumes the lead of the Honee, and this occurred twice last night when the time arrived for tha roles of procedure to come forward for dlaoueslon. Yesterday it wns found that there were just 32 Government members and three of tho Opposition m the Chamber, or jmt one half <f r he Government supporters required to to present to C3rry them. Mr Ballance and psrty are balieved to have intimated their intention of opposing the proposed amendments and staged the evidence given up to the present to the Lands Commlfee over the OUgo Central Bill is very strongly against (hat measure and that It was to the effect th»t the lands proposed to be allocated are valuable aurlferious conntry and that the rural land now brings m a revenue of £48,000 to the conntry.