PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2720, 4 November 1871, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS.

COLONIAL INDUSTRIES. The work done by committees during the session of Parliament, though only presented to the public iu the form of printed reports and notes of evidence, is by no means the least important part; of the duties of the Legislature, and perhaps lio more important committee than that appointed to consider the subject of Colonial industries has taken evidence and made report during the present session of the Assembly. r l he object of this committee’s appointment was to consider what stops, if any, should be taken to ascertain and develop the producing and manufacturing resources of the Colony, and in the discharge of this duty the committee are understood to have received a large amount of evidence of an eminent! practical and suggnestive character, as to industries for which there is an eligible field in New Zealand—in its mines, m jts rivers, and its seas. This evidence has not yet, so far as we have seen, been presented to the Houses of Assembly, but preliminary to its production, the committee have framed a brief report from wh ch we learn something of the character of their inquiry, and of the recommendations which they have resolved to make. According to this report, the principal subjects upon which they have taken evidence ani made recommendations are four iu number— the cultivation of beet-

root and the manufacture of sugar therefrom, the encouragement of fisheries and fishcuring, the manufacture of paper, and the development of the Brunner and Mount Bochfort coalfields. Sericulture and other subjects interesting to Acclimatisation Societies, and the matter of trade marks, are also referred to, but it is on the first-mentioned subjects that the committee have come to any definite resolutions. We are unable in our present number to quote the report at length, but shall indicate briefly the recommendations made to give encouragement to the growth of beet-root. The committee recommend that the Government should offer facilities for the acquiring, by a company, of about 3000 acres of land on reasonable terms ; that Mr K.rull, the German Consul, should be invited to assist the Government in introducing from

Germany a sufficient num’ er of persons experienced in the culture of beet-root; that beet-root seed of the particular varieties adapted for sugar manufacture should be obtained ; and that a bonus of L2OCO should be offered for the first 250 tons of sugar. With regard to the establishment of coast fisheries, the committee recommend that these should be encouraged by means of a bonus, for a term of seven years, on cured fish, dry and pickled, exported for consumption abroad, aud that suitable sites should be reserved for the purposes of fisheries and for curing stations. They made special mention also of the case of Messrs M'Leod and Perston, of Whangarei, and recommend that they should have the exclusive right of a block of 500 acres, thirteen miles north of Whangarei, so long as they use it as a fishing and drying ground. They further recommend that all articles used in coast fisheries should be admitted free of duty, and that all boats and vessels engaged in the fishing trade be re ieved from harbor, wharf, pilotage, and light dues.. Convinced from the evidence taken that there are within the Colony various fibres suitable for papermaking, the committee recommend that a bonus of L 2,500 be offered for the production of the first 100 tons of printing paper produced by machinery, such bonus to be iu addition to any offered by any particular proviu e. The payment of Mr Smith’s expenses incurred in recent experiments with Taranaki iron sand, the offer of a bonus on the plan proposed by Mr Smith, and the voting of LIOO to aid the planting of mulberry trees for the purposes of sericulture, are other suggestions made by the committee; and they refer also to the manufacture of glass aud the question of the durability and strength of the various timbers grown in the Colony as subjects worthy of attention. In conclusion, the committee suggest that the expenditure of the various sums recommended be placed under the immediate eontrol of some competent officer of the Government, with a view to their careful application, and that a report or his proceedings should be presented to the General Assembly at the commencement of next session.

CHINESE IMMIGRATION. The Select Committee on Chinese Immigration have submitted to the House of Representatives their first ad interim report, a copy of which we have received. In this report, the Chairman, Mr W. J. Steward, prefaces the record of the evidence taken by the following remarks :—“ Your committee, immediately after their appointment, took active steps to collect all available information on the subject. Circulars were sent out, containing a number of queries, to chief officers of police in the various Provinces, to wardens of goldfields, and to various gentlemen of the medical profession, replies to most of which have been received, and have been considered by your committee. Your committee have also forwarded, through the hon. the Colonial Secretary, a request to the Governments of the neighboring Colonies of Victoria and Rew South Wales, for the furnishing of guob data as the experience of those Colonies, with regard to the Chinese question, will enable them to afford. Your committee have also examined a number of witnesses, whose attendance was procured without any expense to the Colony, including Mr J. T. Thomson, C. E., Commissioner of Crown Lands, Otago ; Mr John Ah Tong, Wellington; Mr Maitland j Capt. Bishop, of the ship Halcioue; Dr Hector ; G. M. Webster, Esq., M.H.R.; and C. E. Haughtou, Esq., M.H.R. On the receipt of replies from Victoria and New South Wales, your committee will have concluded their labors, and will bring up such recommendations as may appear to them expedient. ”