NEWS AMP NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1255, 11 October 1911, Page 6

NEWS AMP NOTES.

NEW BILLS. AUCKLAND COLLEGE COUNCIL. REORGANISATION PROPOSAL. An entire reorganisation of the Auckland University Collego Council is proposed by an amending Bill circulated yesterday similar to tho University of Otugo Bill now before Parliament. . The number of members will bo increased from eleven to fifteen. Tho threo members elected by members of tho General Assembly in the Auckland Province will retire' at tho end of their present terms, and afterwards thero will be no Parliamentary representatives on the council. At present no professor of tho college is eligible for office on tho council, but the Bill proposes to give the Professorial Board . two representatives. The nominees of tho Governor are to be increased from three to four, and four members will be elected by . the District Court of Convocation, instead of the threo now elected bv the graduates. Those ten members will hold office for four years. The three now members will bo elected by the governing bodies of the secondary schools, the tcacheTs in public schools and the teachers in secondary schools, in tho Auckland University district, each group returning one member. Provision is made that the governing body of each secondary school shall be entitled to one vote for every hundred or part of eno hundred secondary pupils in average attendance for the year ended December 31 preceding the election. Tho new council will bo constituted in June, 1912, and will come into office on July 1, 1912. . , ADVANCES TO WORKERS. A Bill, to amend tho State Guaranteed Advances Act, introduced yesterday,* provided for an increase in the amount which can be borrowed by tho Government in any one year for advances to workers from .£51)0,000 (o ,£750,000. A proviso is added that if tho total amount borrowable is not borrowed in any ono year it can be added on to the next year's borrowings. Sub-section 3 or Section G1 of the principal Act is amended by omitting the words "exceeding the value of the dwellinghouse to be erected or acquired or." The clause as it is proposed to amend it

will read as follows:—"Not more than X-150 shall bo granted to any one borrower and no advance shall bo granted exceeding three-fourths of the value of the security in tho case of freehold land or three-fourths of t'ho lessee's interest,in the leaso in tho case of leasehold land." OLD AGE PENSION'S. Tho Bill to amend the Old Age Pensions Act contains a provision for the extension of tho right to receive pensions in tho case of persons having children dependent upon them. Thus a male of 60 years or a female of 55 years who has dependent upon Mm or her two or more children under the age of 14 shall, subject to tho provisions of tho Act, be entitled to a pension as prescribed by tho principal Act with tho addition of such sum not exceeding .£l3 per annum a,s tho magistrate in his discretion, having regard, to tho circumstances of the case, determines. Such increased pension will of course cease, to be paid when the children have passed the specified age.

DEATH DUTIES AMENDMENT. A proposal is made in the Death Duties Amendment Bill introduced yesterday afternoon to exempt from duty gifts not exceeding .£IOOO in value, this provision being retrospective. Should such a gift 1)0 followed by a second which makes a total exceeding the exempted amount, duty will, be payable on both sums. Under the present Act the exemption is ioOO. Successions not exceeding ,£2OO in value are, it is proposed, to bo exempt from duty.

PUBLIC WORKS AMENDMENT. In the amending Bill introduced by tho Minister for Public Works a proposal is made that all electric lines, other than those used for telegraph, telephone, or wireless telegraphy purposes, or for the transmission of power for electric tramway purposes, shall be licensed.

Any interost in land acquired from the Crown or a local authority in an exchange of land for roads or any other public purpose is exempted from tho limitation clauses of the Land Act. A similar eyemption is extended to closed roads and land taken but not required for a put lie wort, and afterwards sold. Theso pu-visions are 'similar to thoso of a private Bill introduced a few weeks ago by Sir William Steward. SHIPPING .AND'SEAMEN BILL. An amendment to this .Act is proposed by the Government. It i.-s proposed lo add to tho proviso in thn clause regarding engineers certificates tho following: "or (dJ Who has worked for at leak

three years in a workshop as hereinbefore prescribed, and lias also completed to the satisfaction of the Minister n eonrse of mechanical engineering extending over not less than two years at such al.issC3 recognised iiiuler 'Part VII of the Education Act, 190S, as arc approved for tho pur]x)?c bv tho Minister.' Seamen left 011 shore in New Zealand by reason of illness, etc., aro to bo deemed to bo discharged from the ship.

It is provided whero tho ship from whiah a seaman is left on shore as aforesaid is a foreign-going ship trading beyond intercolonial limits, tho master or ag;ut shall deposit with tho superintendent the full amount of wages then duo to that .seaman, and, in addition, the sum of fifty pounds for the purpose of defraying any expenses lawfully incurred by the superintendent for the maintenance cf. nlid medical and other attendance on, the sen ma n so left on shoTe, and in payment of his passage back to the port of his engagement, or of his burial in case of his death in X'Jw Zealand.* A clearance shall not be granted to any such ship which is not owned in NewZealand until this provision has been complied with. A seaman so left on shore shall, within seven days from the date of his medical attendant, or a medical practitioner appointed by the superintendent, certifying that he is convalescent, make application to the superintendent to. be provided with a passage back to the port of liis engagement if he desires to bo sent back to such port, and if he fails to make such application he shall forfeit his right to such passage. Any part of such fifty pounds not expended as herein specified shall bo refunded to the master or agent who paid the same. Another clause contains provisions applicable in cases of intercolonial or Homo trade ships. BILLS INTRODUCED. Tho following Bills were introduced by Governor's Message and read a first time, yesterday.—New Zealand Notes Bill, New Zealand State Guaranteed Advances Amendment Bill, Old Age Pensions Amendment' Bill, Pensions to Widows Bill, Public Works Amendment Bill, Death Duties Amendment Bill, Land and Income Tax Bill. Amendments to the Tramwav Amendment Bill, to givo effect to tlio recommendations of tho recent conference of tramway authorities, were also introduced, by Governor's Message. A SURPRISE. Members were very much surprised when Sir Joseph Ward announced shortly before" 9.30 o'clock last night that he would not ask the House to take any fresh business, and suggested that they should forg.i ,tho usual supper adjournment and roniinuo sitting to complete tho matter immediately before them, after ;■ which they should adjourn until to-day. It was a curious sequel to tho Prime "Minister's notice of motion to sit on Mondays during the remainder of the session.' Some supposed that lie must have wished to make his first day in the House after his illness a short one, but the moro general view was that tho Government wished for a littlo more time before going on with the moro important: Bills, as apart' from tho new Bills introduced yesterday there is very little on the Order Papei. TRAMWAYS BILL. New clauses to be embodied in the Tramways Amendment Bill now before the House of .Representatives, were introduced by Governor's Message yesterday afternoon. The proposal in the Bill that' licenso fees should be charged on all tramcars run under deeds of delegation is qualified by a subclause providing for the allocation of tho fees among the authorities of the various districts traversed by the tramway system. This proposal affects only Auckland. Provision is' made for the transfer annually of receipts from tho working of a tramway system to a depreciation fund.

THE PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT. The Minister for Public Works will deliver his statement either next Friday evening or next, Tuesday evening. PETITIONS. The committee of the New Zealand Viticu'ltural Association has petitioned Parliament for protective legislation, State aid for. the wine-producing industry in tho Dominion, and exemption from* tho operation of tho licensing laws. Claiming to have been the discoverer of gold at Waihi, Alexander Maekay, of Paeroa, has petitioned Parliament, through Mr. Glover, for a reward. He states that ho discovered gold in 18G7, on tho ground now owned bv the Waihi Gold Mining Company, and floated the original company on the Thames, after the .opening of Ohinemuri to goldmining. In 1567 he discovered gold at Ivarangahake, and in the following year at Waitekauri and Owharoa. The petitioner states that tho Government guaranteed he would bo roivarded as soon as the localities proved payable.

Throe of the former owners of property at Grainger Street, Wellington, taken by the Harbour Board under the Reclamation and Empowering Act of 190S, have petitioned Parliament for more adequate compensation than they liave yet received. They state that the compensation awarded them by the Court was so much less than tho actual value of tho land that they have only been able to obtain by investing tho money very much smaller incomes than they formerly drew from tho properties. A similar petition was presented in 1900, when tho Public Petitions Committee recommended the Government to make full inquiry, with a viewto according the petitioners relief. The petitioners are Edmond Corrigan and Margaret Donnelly, of Wellington, and John Callaghan, of Ngaire, Taranaki. Florence Ethel Boulton, widow of the attendant at Porirua Mental Hospital who died of typhoid fever, contracted while nursing patients there during tho recent epidemic, has petitioned Parliament for the means to rear and maintain her three-months-old child and p'.ace herself beyond the reach of want. The petitioner states that her lato husband had some tuition in anatomy at tho Mental Hospital, but had never been concerned with sickness or nursing until he was placed in charge of typlioid patients at tho Mental Hospital. He and other attendants on nursing duty had to eat their meals in tho fever ward.