PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1057, 21 July 1882, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

Mr Dick’s Members Expenses Bill provides that there shall be paid out of Consol lidated Fund to every member residing at a 1 disk!.' oe exceeding ten miles from the place to which the General) Assembly is summoned £2lO. for every session, and to every member residing within ten miles £l4O. Three pounds to be deducted for every day’s absence, except in the case of illness, certified to by a medical man. In addition to the allowance aforesaid, there shall he paid to every member the actual sums which such member shall have reasonably incurred in proceeding to and returning from the General Assembly : provided that such payment shall he made only in respect of one Journey. Paymen'son account may be made from time to time, not exceeding two pounds for each sitting day. Mr Seddon’s Gold Duties Act Amendment Bill provides that purchasers of gold shall declare monthly the quantity purchased and the places where produced ■, shippers of gold to furnish such declarations to the Commissioner of Customs, which is to be the basis of distribution as between counties and boroughs.

Theannual goldfields report was presented. It is very bulky, and bristles with elaborate details and statistics. The chief points of interest seem to be comprise 1 in the following comparative returns, viz —(I) Quartz crushed in 1881, New Zealand, (15,712 tons, yielding loz 6-lwt 19gr of gold per ton ; Victoria, 1,(141,212 tons, yielding Sdwt 18grs per ton—a very striking difference. (2) The number of the mining population on 31st March. 1882 was 14,714, as compared with 15,063 on the same date of 1881. (3) The earnings of the mining population were £79 11s per man, as against £75 8s the previous year.

It is doubtful now whether a want of confidence mo'ion wilt come on, owing to the jealousy which exis s between the Otasro and Auckland memb rs. Mr Montgomery stands aloof, ami Mr Macandrew and Mr Dargaville are evidently jealous of one another.

The Hon. Mr Scotland’s remark in the Council relating to obscene language being used by members in the lobbies has given rise to extreme irritation. Amidst expressions of approval, Mr Dodson gave notice of the following motion—“ That Hie allegation which appeared in the JV" Z. Times newspaper of Ju’y 12. under the head of * Parliamentary Intelligence,’ to the effect that obscene language is indulged in within the Parliamentary Buildings is untrue, and is a gross libel on the people of New Zea land and their representatives.” It was rumoured that Mr Scotland would explain that his remark referred only to some members of the Upper House, but he has said nothing on the subject Mr Pyke has given notice to call the attention of Government to the circulation of spurious com in Christchurch.

In reference to two petitions, received respectively from Otago and Rangitikei, in favour of Bible reading in schools and urging that an 11 overwhelming majority of the people o F the Colony favoured it,” the Public Petitions Committee report that thoy decline to offer any opinion on the subject Mr. Pylte resumed the debate on the Land Bill He complimented Mr. R -Heston on introducing this excellent hill, which showed lie possessed the courage of his npi. nions. He had the noble audacity to advocate opinions which if not popular, were at least noble and just. The main principles of the bill wer n in accord with the. tendency of modern thought, although no legislature had ever endeavoured to give them practical effect. The principle was that the land was ami must always remain the property of the State, no matter how disposed of. The bill would benefit individuals by enabling them to go on land without first impoverishing (themselves by the expenditure of ihe purchase-money. The advantage to the State would be incalculable. What would he the condition of the Colony if it. sold all its land ? To sell land was really not to raise revenue, but to destroy the source from avhicli revenue should he raised. There j was really no limit io the taxation which ! land might bear, although there was a limit I to the power of indirect taxation. We were flinging our patrimony to the winds in selling onr land and allowing large estates to accumulate in the hands of a few, regardless of the lessons of the history of other countries all the world over. The majority would in turn make the minority pay when they found themselves shut out from the land. Hu entirely concurred with the caution shown by the Government in proposing to try the experiment on a limited scale He laughed to scorn the idea that people would not take up leaseholds. The sales of na.s oral leases in Otago, which had ronlis- d £76.000 a year, showed this. He he’ieved two-thirds of Dunedin was let on leases. There was a great deal of sentimental nonsense talked about this question of freeholds as against leaseholds. "People did, as a matter of fact lend money on leas- s He preferred the State to the money-lender as a landowner. If the leaseholds ultimately became freeholds, still the great goo I would be done that the people would have been settled on the land. In India the sum of 16 millions was nominally raised by the rent of lands. Ho entirely differed from the Minister of Lands in referenc" to <he land

on gold Helds. lie thought at least 30 year’s lease should be given, and not limited to 20 years. The outcome of the ballot system was that the wealthy man got the, hulk of the land. Tins bill would be a death blow to landsharks, and, therefore, tbev would oppose it. Ho complimented Hir John Hall on his masterly speech on Friday night. The deferred-payment system was originated byt.be speaker (Mr Pyke) in 1882 and not by Mr Donald Reid, as stated by Mr. Kollestnn. At the present time the agricul-tural-lease system was preferred to Mm deferred payment system. Section 38, was, he thought, one of the harshest eve • intro clnced in such a bill. It should not be al--to pass in its present shape Ho regarded clauses 45 downwards with great fear. We should lose our reserves for primary education by this bill. He would try and have the clauses struck out in Committee. Ho was perfectly sure tho clauses for the relief of deferred-payment settlers would never bo availed of. Re thought the bill introduced by Sir Oeorgn Oroy was batter for deferred-payment so tiers than the bill introduced by (lovornment. He congratulated the Minister of Lands on the clause referring to pastoral leases, an'’ hoped that no party fadings would b flnenre members in dealing with a measure of this importance.