EXTRACTS FROM "HANSARD."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1902, 26 July 1888, Page 3

EXTRACTS FROM "HANSARD."

SLAUGHTERHOUSE BILL.

la the Hoaae on May 25th Mr Walksr Bald he waaunder considerable diffioolty with reference to this Bill, because, on the broad ground, to begin with, he was moat dlatinotly m favor of anything that would give relief or offer encouragement to such companies as the honorable member fot Walrarapa Apparently was retaiued for ; but he thought, on looking »t the Bill and at its preamble, that it waa one that would be very hard to swallow. The preamble said, — " Whereas the fees leviable under 'The Slaughterhouses Aot, 1877' (hereinafter sailed ' the said Aot '), where large aurabora of cattle are slaughtered for axport, are unreasonably high, and oalonlated to have the bffeot of unduly ttxlng »nd thereby discouraging an important industry, and it is therefore expedient that the amount whioh may be so levied should be limited ' Thai preamble made a goneral asaer;lon whloh he did not think it at all fair should be submitted to the House. So :ar as he knew, it was only one district, »nd only one part of a district, where suoh an effect had takeu place. It seemed so him very Inexpedient that general Acts ihould ba altered to unit particular eases. Se did not wish to bo poison*), and woe lorry tonotloe that the honourable membor or Walrarapa was apparently inolined to look upon the opposition to the Bill as perjonaty; but it was impoasible to look upon ;he Bill except rs a BUI which was intended to off jrd relief to a particular jompany m a particular district. Mr Buohanan— No, no. Mr Walker said it was Impossible for my man of common sense to believe anything else ; but probably his honourable 'riend was- of unoommon sense. At all jvenls, he thought it very dangerous to liter general Aot 3 to suit particular cases Fhe local auth rltles hadpowar over these liaughterhouae llcenboa all over the colony, md m no other oibq had thero been a jonfllot between the looal bodleß and any ilasghterhouße o >Dstituenta. Apparently, q other districts these coi.fllotlug interests nanaged to get along together ; but m ;hia particular one thoy did not. He did lot preßumo to say tho company was nrrong, or that the looal authority waa right, but, at any rate, they differed ; and ;ras the Huuao In a position, without the Bill having gone through the usual forms md ceremonies of a looal BID, on such ev!ienoa as they had before them, to jadge In this case ? He was afraid they were aot. All they kne* was that the £300 from the company—— Me Buohanan— £9oo odd. What he tiad said was that £900 odd had been levied during the past year. Me Walker.— Well, the figarea did not seem to be at all reoonollable, and it muat b>e clear to members that this Bill ought to have gono before the Looal Luis Committee, for it was purely a queatlon of looal government. He maintained thai thia was not the proper plaoo nor the proper oooaslon to consider this Bill, For ill they knew, the Petone Town Board might have very good reasons for levying this charge. Possibly and probably an equivalent was given by the looal body In return for tho fees charged, and ho presumed that if they did not levy these :pcb they would have to levy thia indefinite sura of £300, £400, or £900 on the ratepayers. I r . waa impossible for the House to say whither the fees charged were reasonable or rot, and t nQ Bill ought to be submitted t»o a Select Committee, or alee it should go through the übuhl ordeal af looal Bills, ao that the House might have some moans o£ getting at the frots Df the ottse, which at the present time were very Indefinite. He did not like to see general principles whioh apparently worked weU m ninety-nice oases out of a hundred altered for the ual<e of suiting the olrcumstanQes a,nd perhaps the disposition of the one In the hundred. He trusted the Colonial Secretary, who had fathered this Bill with a considerable amount of klndneaa, woald, oat of the goodneaa of hla heart, bog his way to postpono It for a little further consideration. Mr Hutchison hoped the Houso would paaa tho saoond reading of the Bill and amend it In Committee. He thought It was an admirable Bill so far bb the title wan conoornod — "An Aot to nmond ' The Slaughterhouses Aot, 1877 ;' " but the whole of tho rest of the Bill was open to considerable objection. Th'} preamble, for Instancy, was very objectionable, and It was a pity it was there at all. Proumbles rb a rule were objectionable, and this one was particularly so. It said,". . the feea leviable under 'The Slaughterhouse Aot, 1887,' . , where large numbers of oattlo are Blftuahtered for export, are unreasonably high." That, no doubt, was so, and was a reason for an alteration; bat the Bill was conceived entlroly In the interests of largo companies, and that was very undesirable. No doubt, however, the Colonial Secretary and the honorable member for Walrarapa, «rho wore interested In seeing this Bill passed, wtuld m Oiramlttee agreo to auoh nmendraenta as would make it unobjjootionable. Foe Inatanao, he apprehended they would have to alter the aubseottona of clause 2 ao as to provide that the fees payable under the lloensa should bo something like halfpenny per head, not exoaeding £25 a yeatr, and also to. gr> back to tho original Aot and limit the Inspection foeo which were thore fixod to aomethlnE; like £29 per annum. ( WUh theae a,lterationa the BUI would make a great improvement la a matter whloh was of great Interest to the oolony -—•namely, In assisting the export of frozen meat. ■ He hopod the House would agree to the seaond reading, and amand the Bill m Committee,