GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 734, 26 October 1876, Page 3

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

(Per Press Agency., HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Wednesday, October 25, MANUFACTURE OP PAPER, In reply to Mr Burns, Hon C. 0. Bowen said no bonus had been paid for the manu facture of paper in the colony. Two notices for application had been made, but the application had been made too late. He intimated, however, that the bonuses would be again put upon the supplementary estimates, SIR J. VOGEL'S EXPENSES. The report of the public accounts committee on the expenses of Sir J. Vogel’s two missions to Europe was brought up. It showed that the cost of one mission was over £SOOO, and the other over £3OOO, exclusive of salary and other charges, which would make the total cost about £ i 2,500. WASTE LANDS BILL. In committee on the Waste Lands Administration Bill the clauses providing that the rent for runs after 1880 should be fixed by the Waste Lands Board in the provincial district of Canterbury were thrown out by 22 against 20. The Bill was read a third time and passed. BILLS DISCHARGED The Lotteries and Art Union Bill and the Coroners Act, 1867, Amendment Bill were discharged from the order paper. PUBLIC WORKS BILL. The House went into committee on the Public Works Bill. Several verbal amendments were made without discussion. Clauses 29 to 60 inclusive passed without amendment. Objection was raised to clause 70 by Mr Stevens, in relation to dealing with mortgage on land, and the clause was postponed. On clause 80, as to the definition of roads, a division was taken on the proposal to strike out the words “ Lands over which the right of way is acquired by public usage.” The amendment was carried by 25 against 16. The debate was interrupted by the 5.30 adjournment. LAST NIGHT’S SITTING. The House resumed at 7.30. The chief portion of last night’s sitting was engaged on the Public Works Bill in committee. The Bill passed through committee, and was read a third time and passed. The remainder of the sitting was passed on the Disqualification Bill No 2. Mr Button considered the Disqualification Acts, traps to catch the unwary, and hoped to see them wiped off the statute book. The purity of Parliament depended upon the purity of the people, and statutory purity was a mere figment. He moved an amendto shelve the Bill. On a division, the motion was negatived by 40 to 12. Various verbal amendments in several clauses were made, and the Bill reported and passed. The House adjourned at 2.5. POLITICAL NEWS. {From a corresvondent of the Press.) The Bills in committee at the fag end of the session fail to interest, however important. The attendance of members is email, and the reporters excusably seek relief from their exhaustive labour. Last night there was much purposeless talk on the Waste Lands Administration Bill, and when the clauses came on in the committee, there was not, except on the part of a few, marked attention paid to business. It is even said that one Canterbury member, desirous of being attentive, found himself in the wrong lobby on the division. Clause 70, which provides that the rent for the runs after 1880 should be fixed by the the Waste Lands Board in the Canterbury provincial district was accepted as a test of whether the Canterbury run question should be dealt with this session, and the result of the division was 22 against the clause, and 20 for. Another motion, which was negatived, was one by Mr Barff, of Westland, that the members of the Board should be elected instead of nominated. The public accounts committee to-day reported that the cost of Sir J. Vogel’s first mission to England was £3163 exclusive of salary, amounting to £638. The cost of his second missson was £5640, exclusive of a further claim for £2760, and exclusive of salary, amounting to £2172, with secretary’s salary £534 There were received and claimed by Sir J. Vogel during his second mission —Salary, £2172 ; travelling expenses, £2171; special, £1500; passages for himself and servant, £283, amounting to £6127, which, with the additional vote of £2750, makes a total of £8877. The committee gives the items of these totals and a statement of the manner in which they are charged to the public account. The petitions committee have reported that the extension of the Great Northern Railway in Canterbury is a matter for the consideration of the Government, They also report that the extension of the Malvern branch of the Southern railway and the extension of the narrow guage branch, as petitioned for by the inhabitants of Kaiapoi, from Eyreton and Oxford, are deserving of consideration when the colony undertakes the construction of branch railways.