GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 661, 2 August 1876, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

{From a correspondent of the Press.") LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Tuesday, August 1. regulation oe elections act. The principal business of the Council this afternoon was the consideration of Hon Dr Pollen’s motion for the recommittal of the Regulation of Elections Bill, with the view of erasing the proxy clause moved by Hon Colonel Whitmore. In moving it Dr Pollen said Auckland and Hawke’s Bay were the only places in the colony that recognised proxy voting. He reminded the Council that there was an impression abroad that the Council had a most tender regard for property, and this was, he said, an opportunity of showing the country it was unfounded. As the clause stood, it seemed as if it were in the interests of property, as the proxy system was not by it extended to miners and the thousand and one other persona entitled by the various Bills now before Parliament to vote. Hon Colonel Whitmore strongly protested against the tone of the Colonial Secretary’s speech, which had no foundation in fact, and seemed to indicate that he was about to seek the suffrages of the minets. The clause was proposed in the interests of the poor man. Hon B. Gray also complained of Dr Pollen’s unfair insinuations. Hon Mr Waterhouse opposed the clause as introducing a new system, which would open the door to frightful abuses, as did Hon Mr Hall, who said the ratepayers throughout the colony did not ask for it, Hon Dr Menzies suggested that the clause should be made optional in its operation. Hon W. Robinson, who described himself as a small cockatoo, supported the clause. On Hon Captain Fraser’s motion, the debate was adjourned till to morrow. AUCKLAND INSTITUTE. The Auckland Institute Bill, giving additional powers to the trustee, was rejected by 17 to 6. CANTERBURY RESERVES. Hon Mr Hall’s additional clause in the Canterbury Reserves Sale and Leasing Bill was carried. He wanted to move a new clause, declaring that no Crown Grant for any of the lands comprised in schedules I and 2 shall be impeached or set aside by reason of their including any pre-emptives, but it was objected to as irregular, and he gave notice of it for to-morrow, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Tuesday, August 1, questions. The following question was asked : Mr Lusk Whether the Government has received a petition from the settlers in the Upper M angatawhairi district, praying for the construction of a bridge over the upper river. Whether any engineer has been instructed to report upon the question. Whether, in the event of the report being favourable, the Government will be prepared to carry out the work without delay ? The Government made the following reply That such a petition had been received, but the Government considered the work one that should be done locally, the Government having facilitated the matter. EASTERN MAORI DISTRICT. Mr Curtis moved that Mr Karaitiana should be called upon to take his seat for the Eastern Maori district. This was agreed to. Sir J. Vogel said the Government did not agree with the committee’s conclusion, but they thought their recommendation was entitled to weight. The Clerk of Writs was ordered to attend to morrow to insert Mr Karaitiana’s name on the roll. NEW MEMBER. Mr Tonks was introduced, and took the oaths and his seat alongside of Mr Rowe. EAST COAST ELECTION. Leave to adjourn for fourteen days, to obtain further evidence, was granted to the East Coast election committee. BRUNNER BRIDGE. The Minister of Public Works made an explanation in reference to the fall of the Brunner bridge. Early on Friday morning the anchor plates on the south bank gave way, and the superstructure of the bridge fell into the river. The piers, which were the most expensive part of the bridge, were quite uninjured. The cables and most of the iron work had already been recovered, aud it was hoped it would all be recovered. To restore the bridge would it was calculated to cost about £IOOO. The anchor plates had been designed to bear three times the weight of the whole bridge, so that either the castings were defective, or an error must have occurred in the original calculations. The bridge had been designed in the head office here, and was the only one of its kind in the colony, A searching investigation would be instituted to find out who was to blame, and the result would bo laid before the House. In answer to Mr Burns, Hon B. Richardson said there were no other works in the colony designed upon the same plan. CORPORATIONS BILL. In committee upon the Corporations Bill, on clause 170, giving power to municipalities to lease for twenty-one years, Mr Whitaker’s amendment, which provided that lands in the province of Auckland to bo let by way of lease for building purposes may be let for any term not exceeding sixty-six years, was agreed to on the voices, as would have been done on Saturday morning but for Mr Swanson’s obstinacy. Hereupon Mr Button rose and said Westland would like to be in the same boat, and moved as a further proviso, “and likewise in the i'rovinco of Westland,” which was also agreed to amid some laughter. The merriment was renewed when Mr Stevens proposed, “ and likewise Canterbury,” which was carried. But the House was fairly convulsed when Mr Carrington proposed the extension of the clause to Taranaki. This was too much for Mr Bastings, who said the line must hi drawn somewhere and he intended to draw it at Taranaki. Mr Johnston next proposed that the clause should include Wellington, and at Mr Reid’s suggestion Otago was in eluded. Mr Seymour suggested Marl borough also. The Government then inti mated that the clause would be reconsidered and recommitted, with the view of making its application general,

Mr Reid asked the Government to consider the advisability of allowing the local bodies to fix the term of their leases, provided there was a decennial valuation. Clause 203, giving Councils power to collect tolls, was struck out by 32 to 27. Clause 308 was reached when the adjournment hour arrived, Mr Stevens gave notice of a new clause to exempt the Christchurch Drainage Act from the operation of the Bill. (Per Press Agency .) MR. WHITAKER’S RESOLUTIONS LOST. On the House resuming at 7 30, Mr Whitaker moved his resolutions, speaking two hours. He travelled over most of the salient points of the history of the colony as regarded its dealings with the waste lands of the Crown, to show that in this colony, as was the case in all other colonies and countries, waste lands were always the property of the State, and argued that the term “compact” was a misnomer, and has been coined since 1856 ; that the arrangement then made was merely temporary, and subject to the ratification of the Imperial Parliament ; that the Imperial Parliament washed its. hands of the matters by declining to allow the Provincial Governments to deal with the waste lands. That the arrangement had never been made final; that if it had been it would not have been altered and modified so often as it was during the last twenty year; that the credit of the colony was becoming very bad at home,; that our finances had become so entangled and intricate that no ordinary mind could get a fair idea of them ; that the only way to get out of our own difficulties, to simplify our system of finance and raise the credit of the colony—was to make the land fund colonial revenue. He also urged that there was no legal or moral obligation, no compact between two parties to prevent this being done; that because the South Island had for twenty years enjoyed a prescriptive right to the lands of that island, it was time the colony resumed its own, and the North Island had its turn, and that sooner or later the necessities of the colony must make it come to this. The Premier, in a speech of an hour and a half, traversed the main points of Mr Whitaker’s speech, and argued that his proposals were inexpedient, impolitic, and unjust; that, call it what you would—compact or arrangement—there had been a sole understanding arrived at in 1856, and all the legislation since that affecting the waste lands of the Crown were based upon the financial resolutions of that year ; that so firm was the feeling upon that point that no man dared, with any reasonable prospect of success, propose to upset that understand ing ; that when it was made the general feeling was that the North Island had the best of the bargain, so much so that a readjustment had been provided for; that while the North gave way to pressure of circumstances, and sacrificed its own land, the South put up with all sorts of inconvenience, sooner than part with their land at the low prices. The Premier quoted the words of Mr Richmond, then Mr Whitaker’s colleague, in support of his statements, and it was a mere quibbling to upset the arrangements then made. He attributed the threatening financial difficulties of the year partly to the large sums already borrowed, partly to the action of those at home, who ought not to run down the credit of the colony, and spoke hopefully of tiding over the threatened dangers. He looked upon these resolutions as only a stage towards separation, as hurtful to the public credit, and calculated to retard all the proposed legislation for the benefit of outlying districts. He showed how the public works had increased the population and productive industry of the colony, and placed her in a better position than ever she was to bear extra taxation, though they did not think it necessary. Sir G. Grey, in a few remarks, intimated that he would move for insular separation ; the seat of government for the North Island to be in Auckland, and of the South, Canterbury ; the seat of the Colonial Government to remain in Wellington. Mr Whitaker, declining to reply, a division was taken, and the resolutions lost by 54 to 21. Sir G. Grey’s resolutions wili be moved on Thursday next at 7 30, until which time the House stands adjourned. The following is the division list:— Ayes ... 21 Noes 54 AYES, Mr Andrew (teller) Mr Dignan Sir R. Douglas Gibbs G. Grey Hamlin Mr Macfarlane Lusk G. E, Rees Read Rowe Richmond Swanson Sharp Tole Tawiti Wakefield Tonks Williams Whitaker(teller) R. G. Wood. NOES. Mr Atkinson Mr Baigent Ballance Barff Bastings Bowen Brandon J. C. Brown J. E, Brown Bryce Burns Button Carrington Cox Delatour Fisher Fitzroy Henry Hislop Hodgkinson Hunter Johnston Kennedy J oyce Laruach Kenny Lumsden Manders Macandrew (teller) Sir D. McLean G. McLean Mr Montgomery Moorhouse Murray Murray-Aynslcy Pearce Pyke D. Reid Reynolds (teller) Richardson Rolleston Seaton Seymour Shriniski Stafford Stevens Stout Tairoa Teschmaker Thomson Tribe Sir J, Yogel Wason Mr Woolcock