HOUSE OF PtEPRESENTATIVES.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 24, 27 July 1895, Page 2

HOUSE OF PtEPRESENTATIVES.

Tbe House met at 2.30. On the motion that the House go into Committee of Supply for the ! passing of tho Imprest Supply Bill, " for £302,000, Sir R. Stout, Messrs Mitcholson and others complaiued , that the returns under the Public Re- i venuos Act, which tho law required should be laid on the table within thirty days of the meeting oE Parliament, had not yet been furnished to the House. The Hon. J. G. Ward said that there was no desire to keep back the returns, and on Tuesday next he proposed to lay all the returns ou the table that the House asked for. A discussion with regard to these returns lasted the whole afternoon, and just before the adjournment the Bill was put through its final stages and sent on to the Legislative Council. The Wilson Land Bill was read a second time. Mr Pii-ani continued tho adjourned debate upon the Periodical Revaluation of Lands Leased in Perpetuity Bill. He strongly opposed the Bill. Mr Thompson thought that if the House approved of the proposals they might as well confiscate all landed property at once. Even serious discussion would do harm, for the Bill was opposed to th^ whole land policy of the Government. Mr Hogg contended that the country had not demanded such measures at present, and country members should combine to resist this sort of legislation brought forward by city members who did not understand the wants of the country. Mr J. Smith supported the Bill and declared it was tail* and just to all concerned. Mr Crowther thought i 6 would be a good thing if tho words " single tax, unearned increment, and land nationalisation " were swept away for twenty years. There was no tenure like freehold. Messrs Mills, Meredith, Flatman, Willis, Duncan, T. McKenzie, and E. M. Smith spoke against the Bill, and Messrs Collins and Hall-Jones declared in favour of it. On division the second reading was lost by 35 to 21. The Cemeteries Act Amendment (cremation) Bill went through committee without amendment, and the Employers Private Benefit Society Bill went through without material amendment. Both bills were subsequently put through their final stages. The House rose at 12-25 a.m.