GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 351, 28 July 1875, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

———-♦ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, [By Telegraph.] (From a correspondent of the Press.) Tuesday, July 27. The Speaker took the chair at the usual hour. petitions. Several petitions and two Land Bills from Otago were brought up. NOTICES. Among the notices was one for tomorrow by Mr Reader Wood, asking whether the Government had taken any authoritative opinions as to the legality of abolishing the provinces, and if so, whether they will lay the opinions, together with all correspondence connected therewith, on the table. Mr Sheehan also gave notice to ask whether the Government had taken a legal opinion as to the legality of Sir Julius Vogel’s appointment as Postmaster-General; whether they intend in this session to bring in an Act to validate the acts done by him in England ; and also for the production of the law officers’ opinion as to the date on which the present Parliament expires by the effluxion of time. Mr Rolleston moves to-morrow for the production of all correspondence relating to the changes in the Supreme Court. LEAVE OP ABSENCE. Leave of absence was granted to Mr Tolmie for a week. Sir Donald McLean gave notice to ask that leave of absence be granted to Sir Julius Vogel for the session. PAPERS. Ministers presented a batch of papers, including Mr Colenso’s Maori Lexicon ; further papers connected with the Rakaia bridge Commission ; further correspondence between the Minister of Immigration and the Agent-General; the Telegraph report ; papers relating to the Suez and San Francisco mail services, QUESTIONS, In answer to a question, Ministers stated that they would endeavor to obtain a properly qualified person to report in reference to the prohibition now placed on the removal of cattle from the districts situated between the Clarence aad the Conway rivers ; and that the Government would willingly introduce a Bill handing over the foreshore at Grahamstown to the Thames municipality. PLANS OF TOWNS. Mr O’Neill obtained leave to introduce a Plans of Town Regulation Bill. GOVERNMENT BANKING. Mr Rolleston gave notice of his intention to move—“ That the public accounts committee should consider Whether it is conducive to the public interest that between three and four millions should be placed in one bank, and whether other arrangements should not be made for the future.” PENAL ESTABLISHMENT. In moving the second reading of the Waste Lands Amendment Bill, Hon Major Atkinson explained that the Government had, under the Public Reserves Act, reserved Resolution Island, Otago, for the purpose of a central penal establishment, but they afterwards found the island unsuitable. They then found that they had no power to place the land in the original position. The Bill was intended to meet that and similar cases. STAMP DUTIES AMENDMENT. Hon C. C. Bowen having moved, without a single word of comment, for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the stamp duties, Mr MACANDREW got up and asked for information. Was it intended to impose new duties ? Hon C. C. Bowen replied that the main object of the Bill was to give effect to the report of the commission appointed to enquire into the subject. The Bill was mainly a consolidation Act. It would give somewhat different machinery, and there were some slight alterations of the doties which he would explain before the Bill went into committee. After some remarks by Mr LUCKIE, who pointed out the necessity for the consolidating the existing Stamp Acts, The Speaker said the Bill should have come up in ways and means. Order accordingly postponed until tomorrow . INDEMNITY BILL. On the Hon Major Atkinson moving the second reading of the Immigration Expenditure Indemnity Bill without comment, Mr Reader Wood asked for information. He said the Bill itself was wonderfully explicit. There had been an expenditure of £84,040 15s 6d on account of immigration, beyond the £125,000 Government was authorised under the Public Revenues Act to expend during any financial year without appropriation by the House. The House would recollect a variety of debates about audit and control on various occasions. They had been congratulated by the Treasurer of the day on having at last succeeded in so tying their hands by the routine of audit and control that it was impossible for any Government, however much it might desire, to expend a single shilling beyond the £125,000 authorised by the Public Revenues Act without appropriation by the House. Some honorable members wruld also recollect a correspondence between the General Government and some provinces on the subject of finance, wherein the General Government used, as a complete stopper to any further uemands, the statement that the officers of audit and control had prohibited their issue of certain moneys. He would like to know by what means the Treasurer was able to drive a coach and six horses through an Act of Parliament, and how the present Government was clever enough to get £84,010 to expend in opposition to, and in despite of, the law with reference to audit and control. It was possible he might be referred to the first few lines of the Bill, which stated that th“ £84,040 was spent in Great Britain and Ireland. He was aware that the system of audit and control did not apply to Great Britain and Ireland, therefore, either the system of control and audit was exceedingly faulty, and needed amendment, or, as he believed, it was mere moonshine, and perfectly useless and embarrassing to the Government of the day.

Hon Majok Atkinson admitted that this subject was one of the greatest importance, which the House should look into, as of serious moment. Shortly after he came into office as Minister of Immigration, he found that a sura exceeding £200,000 had been supposed by the Colonial Treasurer, and also by the officers of the department, to have been reserved for expenditure during the current year, but, through some technicality

in the Act, the expenditure voted last session had been divided into certain sums for immigration, or, that was to say, there was no power to expend the votes in any other way. The Commissioners of Audit thought the votes had expired, having only been available in the way in which they appeared on last year’s estimates. Either Parliament must have been called together to vote the necessary funds, or immigration must have been reduced by that amount. The latter course would have been to practically stop immigration, which the House provided should be carried on. As the law now stands the accounts of the Agent-General were brought into the public accounts on the day they arrived in the colony. He then considered the means by which he could drive a coach and horses through the Act. The course adopted was this. He wrote a letter to the auditors explaining to them the position, and said it was desirable that immigration should be continued, and to look upon himself as responsible. And now he asked the House to approve of the course he took in the public interests to order the Agent-General’s accounts to be brought into the public accounts at the end of the financial year. Mr Sheehan admired the ingenuity of the Treasurer, and contrasted the bold and vigorous policy of the Government in this instance with the extraordinary scrupulousness of the Government with regard to spending a few hundreds upon Auckland. He suggested that the Bill should be referred to the finance committee for enquiry. Hon Major Atkinson refused to reply to Mr Sheehan’s insinuations. His Jaction in one case had been done to prevent a general muddle, and what, he believed, would have been a calamity; in the other, the Government had no possible power to act otherwise. The Government were anxious that this should not form a precedent. They had been dealing with serious contracts. He was agreeable to its reference to the finance committee. Referred accordingly. FINANCIAL STATEMENT. Hon Major Atkinson intimated he would deliver the financial statement on Friday evening