HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 73, 23 September 1896, Page 2

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

(Per Press Association.) Wellington, Sopt 22. The House was occupied all the afternoon and evening in Committee with the Land for Settlements Amendment Bill. Considerable discussion j took place on the clause limiting applicants in one family to two, and defining family as those within the prohibited ilo«rpps of relationship, and by reason therefore- could not lawfully intermarry. A motion by Mr Pirani to define a family as father aud mother and their children was lost by 26 to 27. The Land for Settlement Bill parsed through Committee after the Minister defined laudless men as those at less than £200 worth of property, and on Mr Pirani'.s motion the increased area for workmen's sections near towns from three to five acres was carried. A new clause was also added, allowing 5000 ncres to be taken from runs of over 20,000 acres. The House then went into Committee on the Shop Hours Bill. Iv reply to Mr PiraDi, the Premier promised to have a clause drafted preventing the overworking of Bank clerks. This Day. The Shop and Shop Assistants Act Amendment Bill was committed. In the extended definition of "shop assistants " an amendment was inserted to make it clear that a bona jidc commercial traveller did not come under the definition. Ou tho motion of Mr Collin a now clause was. inserted giving the Inspectors tho right of entry to offices (including bauk.4). and providing that no employes under 21 years of age shall be employed iv any office after 6 p.m. without permits or not more than 10 hours per day. The Usai'3' Prevention Bill was committed. In clause 4, fixing the maximum rate of interest on loans, Mr Scddou moved an amendment to the cHeck t)>at interest on loans on laud should be 8 per cent., aud 10 per cent, in any other case. This was carried on the voices. After considerable discussion, the Lands for Settlement Act Amendment Bill, the Shop and Shop Assistants Act Amendment Bill, and the Usury Prevention Bill passed their final stages. The House rose at 2 a.m.