PARLIAMENTARY NOTES,

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1856, 13 June 1888, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES,

(From oub own Correspondent.) Wellington, Jane 11. The Pablio Petitions Committee again considered the petition ta reference to juvenile prostitution m Wellington this morning, bat bare come to no conolualon, It is stated that several members, m order to ascertain the real position of aflaira for themaelveei, have bean visiting most of the honaea of ill- repute here, m company with a detective, and are of opinion that there ia no ground for the statements which have been made Last Besalon considerable sensation was caused by the publication of a petition from Mr Arthur Owen, which ' made serious allegations agalDßt the Judge and officers of the Native Land Court, and certain men of high social standing In the North. Nothing was done m the matter and Mr Owen has again come here to urge his olaima. As the Government has decided to appoint a Commissioner to enquire into the olaima of Mukau Jones, aa effort is being raado by Mr Merchant to have the petition of Mr Owen dealt with at the same time* The Freetraders ("through Mr Beetham) made rather a clever move to-day to embarrass the Governmet t.by asking for a return Bhowlng the detailed amounts estimated to be derived from various items of the tariff, as they had great dlffioul.y iv estimating what the receipts would be. The Premier, however, waß too astute to be ciught by suoh chaff, and deolined to make the concession, as he said they were llKely to be wrong m the majority of oaaefi, md must $Vwide of the mark. He Invited members to pick out the amount for themselves from the statistical tables—- an enviable task' The police report whioh was presented to-day, shows that on March 31 last the entire strength of the force In the Colony was 487 as agilnst 502 m 1887, and 494 1n 1886. A new district ha 3 been formed at the Bay of Islands, m consequence of the large amount of sly grog-Belling, and a well-founded belief that there is smuggling going on there ; but alterations have been made In other parts of the Colony by which four inspectors have retired. The returns for the [year show a Batlafaotory diminution m crime of the more serious class, and there are 842 less oases of drunkenness than formerly, The regulations for the compulsory retirement of officers at the age of sixty five and cf men at sixty have been unsatisfactory. The Commissioner recommends the adoption of a uniform age of sixty-five. Wellington, Jane 12. Now that the second reading of the Customs Tariff BUI has been agreed to members who were dUsathfied before are having a second debate, and there Is every prospeot of the debate going on all to-day and perhaps to-morrow, After what he stated m the afternoon no one was surprised last night when just before midnight Mr Beetham moved as an amendment— "That it fs desirable to delay the committal of the Customs and Excise Duties Bill, so as to enable the Government to haVo another opportunity to consider whether the necessity for a portion of the taxation' might not be ob: viated by fartKer retrenchment j 1 Thlu, of oourae, is equivalent to a no-confidence motion, m which light it would be taken by Government, Mr Waterhouae has been giving the Government » lively time m the council this session. He will move to-day " that this Council considering it of the highest importance that m the passing of all laws each different matter should bo provided for by a different law without intermixing m one aud the same law, things that have no propar relation to each other, will re-, fuse to sanction auy proposed legislation of the nature of special powers and contracts acts/ ' ' • -' • Of coarsg the only topic of conversation politically to day is aa to the upshot of Mr Beetham'a amendment, Although the Premier made no definite statement on tho point, it is generally understood that the Government aooept it as a 15 no--oonfidonce " motion, and the debate will be continued without interruption until it is either lost or carried. The latter is, however, a very remote contingency, as although worded so as to catch the votes of those who object to particular items of the Tariff, it Is not expected that anyona trill go over, and the numbers on the division should be about the same aa yesterday, Some surprise will, no doubt, be manifested as to what has become of the member^ who did not voteV Including the Premier's ' there were eightyoix votes' recorded, or excepting the Speaker,' ejght short of th'e total number m tho House;' Those who did not vote were Messrs Graham, Joyce, Kelly, ,J . McKenzle, Pearson,, RubboH, Valentine and Sir J. Yogel. The government whips claim tn*t they endeavoured to get pairs for all these gentlemen for the 8.111 bijt that every available vote was polled and all those who did not vote would have deolared for the Bill; There Is a gortaln amount of Imagination about this, however, bb the probability is that Japtaln Kusßeli and Mr Valontine would have opp >cod the neoond readiog.