JOTTINGS PROM "HANSARD."

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 534, 26 August 1881, Page 2

JOTTINGS PROM "HANSARD."

DR WALLIS ON OATHS AND AFFIRMATIONS Then, what was an affirmation ? What was there tint differentiated an oath from an affirmation ? It seemed to him it was simply this : that in an affirmation there was no recognition of a Supreme Being, i o recognition of a moral government in the world, no recognition of any higher power. There was nothing to rest upon except the power of physical force and physical law ; but if there was nothing but physical law to rest upon, their legislation come down to what Wordsworth called — the simple plan That they should take who have the power, And thoy should keep who can. Physical force therefore was the supreme and that was the result of philosophical radicalism. MR ANDREWS ON VISITING JUSTICES. It seemed to him that these Justices of Peace, who were merely the nominees of the Government for the time being, would swallow any amount of stuff rather than sacrifice the J.P. at the end of their names. That was the opinion he held of some of the men who held the position of Visiting Justices throughout the Colony. He valued neither tlieir opinions nor their inspections, and it struck him that if :hey had been men possessed of

anything like manly spirit they would not have held their positions one hour after these remarks appeared in the newspaper. Why did they not do as tbe members of the Board of Health did in Auckland the other day—resign immediately ? He would not use the word " sycophancy," but it was a most pitiable thing to think that a body of men should come to a certain decision, and then when somebody came and upset that decision and marked his papers "Confidcntal," nothing moro was to be said about it. THE HON J. HALL BLESSKS TIIE NEWSPAPERS. No doubt there was a great deal well worth reading in New Zealand newspapers; but there were a great many statements in tliem that were not worth the paper they were printed on. If ever there was a country blessed with newspaper correspondents of particularly fertile immagination, it was Now Zealand. MR HUTCHISON AGREES WITH HIM. lie quite agreed with the honorable gentleman as to the fertile imagination of newspaper correspondents in this country ; they showed peculiar fertility of imagination in publishing the virtues of the Government and their friends, and the vices of those who oppose them. Jilt DICK ON BOOKMAKERS. At race meetings in Dunedin and in other parts of tho Colony practices were indulged in which required, at all events, supervision and control. He confessed he did not know much about it, so far as the gaming was concerned. He could only speak from what he saw ; and in tho City of Dunedin, which was perhaps, specially moral in this respect, he had noticed that at the approach of the racing season there were to be seen men, who had very much the appearance of vultures, standing at certain publichouso doors and looking out for prey. He thought they went very generally by the name of " bookmakers," and honorable gentlemen knew what was the character of the books they made. They wore about the worst literature that could be introduced into the count ry. SIR W. FOX ON THE TOTALIZATOR. You would never exterminate the race of cats by encouraging the breeding of little kittens. It was absurd. If they could not remove the pas?ion for gambling they could at leastremovethetemptations, and in doing that they should bo thorough, and remove everything of the kind. If they encouraged the use of the totalizator they would not be acting in conformity with the principle of the Bill, ar.d would, to a large extent, prevent the Bill having the effect it should have. He was told that tho totalizator was the horror of the bookmakers, and this was said to be a proof that it was a good thing. Well.it might be so ; because, as a rule, if he found that any proposal was poison to a certain class which he need not further p utioularizo, he at onco inferred it was meat to him. If the totalizator was abhorred by the bookmakers, that certainly was an argument in favor of it, but still, on the broader ground that our young people were likely to be led on gradually by the totalizator to form a habit of betting in small sums, which might grow upon them and induce them to bet heavily, he should vote against it. MR WAKEFIELD ON JUVENILE ENTERTAINMENTS. Tho time seemed to bo not far distant when the people of New Zealand would he unable to amuse themselves at all without fallimr under some legal penalty. When the honorable member for Dunedin City (Mr Stewart) drew attention to tho absence of any provision affecting juvenile entertainments, ho did not quite understand him at first; he thoujrht he meant, perhaps, playing at marbles, or some juvenile entertainments of that sort, and he himself was surprised that there were no provisions restricting these juvenile entertainments. He believed the time would come when no little boy wculd bo able to play at a game of marbles, tip-cat, or hop-scotch without the leave of the Colonial Secretary.

MR SPEIGHT ON "' EOCLESIA TICAL SWINDLES."

He asked the honorable gentleman in charge of the Bill whether he could not make it go in tbe direction of suppressing what several honorable members had already hinted at as ecclesiastical swindles, for he could call them nothing else. Reverend gentlemen who on Sunday taught them the principles they ought to follow, were to be found on Monday or Tuesday leading the unfortunate members of their flock into mokt dangerous paths. Any one who was rash enough to visit these bazaars, which were got up to raise funds for tho erection of churches, clergymen's dwellings, and things of that sort, would agree that they were as much an incentive to gambling as anything that was to be found in the racing-field. He thought the evil was worse in this form, because tney looked for better things in such places; and if the honorable gentleman would try to crush out that spirit in high quarters, the low quarters would become so disreputable that gambling would cease to exist there. They gave it a respectability by means of church bazaars, and he failed to sco with what consistency they punished the blackleg en the turf.