Wellington Notes.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 63, 11 September 1896, Page 2

Wellington Notes.

■o (From our own correspondent.) The loan bill. No matter whether Mr Seddon carries out. his threat of ending the Legislative Council by exterminating it, or amending it, as he proposes, by introducing the female element into it, the members who comprise the old order of Councillors — selected for some more meritorious reason than mere political color — have no intention of accepting the Premier's legislation i7i globo. It is a most unusual course for them to debate a money Bill as they did on Tuesday night, yet it proves that the Council is a very real bulwark against " wild cat " legislation. Ho far as money Bills are concerned its functions are confined to either passing or laying them aside. It has no power of amending them. The Government is now in a tight place. They must state how much they intend to spend on each railway, where they propose to make roads and bridges, and what goldrnining districts are to have the £200,000 divided among them. If Mr Seddon stands firm on his autocratic dignity he runs the risk of the Council burying the Bill and leaving hint with an empty treasury to fight the electiors with. If he climbs down and particularises the items of proposed benefactions to various districts his wings will be clipped to the extent thatthfc schedule binds him. It serves him right to be placed in such a dilemma, for never did a Treasurer ask a Parliament to grant money on such terms in history, as he was audacious enough to ask and the representatives of a free people to grant. Wellington, September 10th.