JOTTINGS FROM "HANSARD."

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 528, 5 August 1881, Page 2

JOTTINGS FROM "HANSARD."

MR SPEIGHT ON THE DUTY OP ELECTORS. I think the House is not giving sufficient attention—it certainly did not last year, and I do not think from what I have heard from honorable members that it is this year—to the proposal of the honorable member for Caversham, that if it is worth a man's while to record his name as a voter he shall exercise that right. Voting for the election of a member of the House of Representatives becomes really a duty and not a mere privilege, and he who will not exercise that Tight .should show guocl cause for the negluct, or else be struck oii the roll V>y that nw.sf.xin you will get rid of the anomaly so justly complained of, that a minority "of the constituents return a majority to l\'.rnamonl. It, is undoubtedly a fad: '.hat it very frequently happens that, when there are «ay a thousand electors in i<. district, not live hundred of them will vote at an eltsctiun, and the succoa.iJiul candidate) will probably Uavo

only a small balance over half that number. So that absolutely a minority of the entire number of electors return the member. MR SWAN BON ON THE PROPERTY QUALIFICATION. I hold that it would be as unfair to deprive a man of the property voto as it would be to deprive him of any other right he possessed. I was very glad this) afternoon to get the opinion fairly out from an honorable gentleman who was very candid | in the matter, and whose meanng there was no doubting. Formerly we had the cry that it was the rich man, the man of large property, who did all these dreadful tilings at elections, but this afternoon we were cautiored that it was that dreadful little man with his thirty acres or less, that very small inoequito, we had to guard against, I have always insisted that the man with the smallest bit of property neutralizes the influence of the man with the largest. In that lies the strength of ! the poor. Ido not mean the men who are thriftless and poor in that respect, but I mean the well-doing , , industrious, saving, eelfc'-denying man who wants to ir.ako a home for himself in any place. ihat is the vote which has always told and will always tell. MR SCOTLAND IS SEVERE ON HORSE RACING, Why should horse-racing be put on a different footing from any other kind of gambling ? It was well known that it was almost impossible to keep horse-racing respectable in these days. It was a barbarous sport, and alw >ys h;id been a barbarous sport; but there was a time in England when it waa invested with a certain amount of respectability, because it was patronised by the aristocracy of the country and curried on by their countenance, and by that means racing was kept fairly straight. But it was well known now that for many years past the aristocracy had been gradually receding fro.n the patronage of horse-racing, and horseracing was found to go the same way as the prize ring, cock-fighting, and other similar barbarous sports had gone. It was of no use to palter with the question, The Legislature must go to the root of the evil. . . . Let-it give the police authority to bring up anybody engaged in horse racing, and let those persons who were found horse-racing be sent to prison and put to hard labor, and then, perhaps , for the first time in their lives, they might bo of some use to the Colony COLONEL BitJiTT DEFENDS IT. The Hon. Colonel Brett must raise his voice in protest against what the Hon Mr Scotland had said. Horse-racing was one of the finest and noblest sports that man was addicted to, and it waa a sport which most of the eminent men of our country had indulged in He could nut see why it should be called barbarous and cruel. He thought his honorable friend had made a mistake in what he had snid. DR WALLIS ON TREATING. The nest clause baa reference to treating, and we are told that treating is treating when it is corruptly dono, but there is no definition whatever of what is " corruptly." Now, I think we are rather hard upon treating at election times. Why should it be a great etimo to give a little food, or a little beer, or a littlo tea on election day to people, while Ministers aie constantly giving us dinners and balls, very often the day before or the tiny aftor they expect votes from us? Surely it is wrong of Ministers to give us dinners and balls. There is something corrupt in that. SIR W. FOX ON CLOSING I'UBLIC-HoUEES DURING ELECTIONS. I have seen what good it does in the United States of America, where 1 was during what would be in England or in this country the great saturnalia of four years—the day of the Presidential election. Along with the honorable member for Cheviot, I was in what is called by some the rowdy city of San Francisco on that clay, and at nine o'clock at night all the people were as sober as if they were in church. The following morning I met a gentleman who once held a seat in this House, and who still holds a position more or less in connection with the Government, and, when I expressed astonishment at the sobriety of the city, he said, "Do not you know the cause of it ? Well, it is simply this: all the public-houses throughout America are closed from the hour that polling commences, at six o'clock in the morning, until it closes at night." And such is the effect of keeping the people aober during the day that three hours afterwards there was no drunkonncss. Although the excitement was almost superhuman, yet there were no broken heads and no broken windows, such as there always are under such circumstances when public-houses are open.