TELEGRAPHIC.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1069, 30 November 1877, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC.

[per press agency.] PARLIAMENTARY. Last Night’s Proceedings. Wellington, November 80. In Committee on the Land Bill an amendment by Mr Stout to extend the system of deferred payments to the Canterbury Pastoral leases was lost on a division by 30 to 27. The Bill was read a third time and passed. In the resumed debate on the Civil List Bill, Dr Hodgkinson moved, and Mr Thompson supported the reduction of Ministers’ salaries and opposed any increase in members. Mr Sheehan supported the Bill on account of the example it would set, but he thought eight Ministers were required, and that two Parliamentary Under-Secretaries would have to be appointed before long to ensure good parliamentary government. Mr Reynolds opposed reducing the salaries, and also any increase in the number of Ministers. Mr Moorhouse denounced the measure as insincere, but one not likely to deceive or hoodwink the public. A reduction in civil services salaries was impossible. Mr Bowen contended that Ministers’ salaries were not excessive, and that civil servants’ salaries could not be reduced. He opposed parliamentary undersecretaries. Mr Gibbs supported. Mr Hunter opposed the Bill. Messrs Montgomery, Kelly, and Murray supported the Bill, and opposed any decrease in the number of Ministers. Sir Q-eorge Grey strongly urged the House to pass the Bill on account of the moral example it would set as a protest against the extravagance which prevailed. The House would be acting unfairly, and giving poor encouragement to the Government to proceed with a course of retrenchment if it rejected this, the first step. On a division, the motion for going into committee was carried by the Speaker’s casting vote, there being 31 on each side. The Speaker said though bound to vote for economy, he did not desire to go the full length of the Bill. In committee, Mr Rolleston moved that the chairman leave the chair, and after a discussion this was carried on a division by 32 to 30. The Bill was therefore shelved. The Greenwood Pension Bill was passed, and the House rose at 12.35 a.m.