PARLIAMENT.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1874, 7 October 1913, Page 7

PARLIAMENT.

; —• A DAILY SUMMARY. . Tho Hons© of Representatives held its first Monday Bitting of tho present ' session yesterday, meeting :at 7.30 p.m.. to deal with Local Bills. Tok minutes were devoted to formal business. Sir Joseph Ward asked a question without notice on tho subject of naval polioy, and tho Primo Minister announced that ho hoped to make a statement on the subject within a week or two. The Houso went Into Committee upon five Local Bills, but only two of them were actually dealt ' with, and those two had a very stormy passage, and provided material for some hours of animated and sometimes embittered talk. . . ' ' ' The first Bill considered was ono which empowors the Gisborne Harbour Board to oorrow £200,000. In its main features the Bill, which is in charge of Mr. MacDcmaM, was soatfcely debated at all, but for about an hour and a half debate ran; high upon a clause providing for plural voting in loan polls, which had been inserted; by the Local Bills Committee. This proposal wjia hotly attacked, and eventually was deleted from tho Bill by 27 votes to 18. Later on tihe same proposal was eliminated from the Wanganui Har-.. bour Bill by 27 votes to 20. The Wanganui Bill, which is in charge of Mr. Veitoh, has como before tho House for the third time. In two previous sessions it was rejected.' As it now stands it authorises a loan of £150,000 for harbour improvements. It came up for consideration at 9.10 p.m., and occupied the Houso until 0.47 a.m. Tho bone of contention on this occa-; sion, during ,somo hours of debate, was the disposition of an area in the Waitotara district which at present is not included in cither the Wanganui Har- , l)our rating area or in that controlled by the Patea Harbour Board. Various technicalities arose to complicate an nlreadjr tangled situation. Tho prevailing opinion seemed to be that tho disputed area belonged of right to the Patea Harbour district, and the agreement finally arrived at (on tho sugges- , tion of the Primo Minister) was that the Bill should bo allowed _ to pass through Committee, but that its further progress should bo stayed until the House had been given-an opportunity of dealing with the Patea Harbour Bill and readjusting boundarios if so desired. Ttiis settlement was not concluded until hard on midnight. Tho other olauses of tho Bill gave comparatively little trouble. At 0.47 a.m. the Bill was passed. through Committee. > The House rose at 0.50 a.m.