HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 9, 29 August 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

• Wednesday July 24, Continued. IMPRISONMENT FOE. DEBT OBDINACE AMENDMENT BILL. B'U lr " BKA: * I>aN rnoyed tile second reading of this Bill read a second time and ordered to be committed presently. NAVAL AND MILITARY SETTLERS (HAWKE’S BAY) BILL. Mr. Oemond moved the second reading of this Bill. Some discussion then arose upon the difficulty experienced in England in getting to a knowledge of the Waste Land Regulations in force at any time, owing to the immense mass of legislation on the subject. Bill read a second time, and ordered to be committed presently. On the motion of Mr. Ormond, the House then went into Committee on the following bills.— The Land Revenue Appropriation Act Amendment Bill which was reported with an amendment, ordered to be considered to-morrow ; the Imprisonment for Debt Ordinance Amendment Bill, and the Naval and Military Settlers’ (Hawke’s Bay) Bill, which were reported without amendments, read a third time and passed, and ordered to be taken to the Legislative Council, to pray their concurrence therein ; and the Lost Laud Orders Bill, which was reported with an amendment, ordered to be committed to-morrow. NATURALIZATION BILL. The report of the Committee of the whole House on this Bill was adopted, and the bill read a third time and passed, and ordered to be taken to the Legislative Council. REGISTRATION OF ELECTORS’ ACT AMENDMENT BILL, The report of the Committee on this bill was adopted, and the bill read a third time and passed, and ordered to be taken to the Legislative Council, to pray then* concurrence therein. The House then adjourned at half-past ten Thursday, July 2otii, 1861. NATIVE LAND TITLES. Mr. Ormond rose to ask the hon. the Native Minister what course the Government intend to pursue in reference to the application of Renata and other Native chiefs, on behalf of the Ngatikahungunu Tribe, expressing the wish of the people to individualize their laud titles, and requesting the assistance of the Government in so doing. The hon. member had just heard that the document referred to had not been returned yet, which precluded his question being answered. To meet this difficulty the hon member produced a copy of the application from his pocket, laid it on the table, and moved that it be printed, with the understanding that the N ative Minister could answer his question when he had consulted the original document. The Speaker and the House agreed to this course. Though the Speaker did observe that hon. members had in several instances produced papers, and moved that they be printed, which he did not much like. Mr. Ormond’s paper might be a genuine copy of the original document, and all very correct, but for many reasons, either some member of the Government, or the Speaker, or the Chairman of Committee, or the Clerk of the House, should certify to the correctness of any document, before he asked the House to stamp it with its own authority. JURIES. The Hon. Mr. Fox moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the Jury Amendment Act. The hon. member, in support of this bill, remarked that its object was to prevent unnecessary expense in printing the lists in the former mode in the various Provinces. Bill received, ordered to be printed, and to be read a second time on Tuesday next. DISTRICT COURTS, The Hon. Mr. Fox moved for leave to bring in a bill to revise the Resident Magistrates’ Extension of Jurisdiction Act. ■ Agreed to. Bill received,, read a first time, ordered to be printed, and to be read a second time on Tuesday next. LAND REVENUE APPROPRIATION AMENDMENT BILL. Mr. Fox moved the adoption of the Report on this bill, —Agreed to. Bill read a third tune. Question put and carried. Bill read a third time, passed, and ordered to be sent to the Legislative Council, praying concurrence therein. On the motion of Mr. Brandon the I,aw Practitioners’ Bill and the Debtors’ and Creditors’ Bill were Committed. Reported, with amendment ; the former to be further considered to-morrow, and the latter on Tuesday next. Mr. Wood laid papers on the table, in answer to a call lor returns ol unauthorised expenditure up to ISSP, and later dates. MESSAGE FROM THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. The Speaker announced that he had received two bills—the New, Zealand bank bill, which had gone through the other House without amendments ; and the New South Wales bank bill, which had passed with amendments, and the other House prayed concurrence therein. Ordered to be considered next sitting day. Friday, July 26th ILLEGAL EXPENDITURE. Mr. Carleton moved, in reference to the resolution of the House, passed the 24th instant, that a return of certain expenditure not previously authorised by Appropriation Act be made’— that if it be found not possible to make such complete return before the next prorogation of this House, so much as can ho conveniently supplied he laid on the table in the course of the session. Motion agreed to. STEAM POSTAL SERVICE. 1 The Speaker said that Mr. Firth’s motion,

“ That the Report of the Steam Postal Committee be adopted,” must be moved in Committee of the whole Honse or in Committee of Supply. •Mr. Firth then moved. That this Report be considered in Committee of Supply to-day.—Agreed, to. RENATa’S letter. Mr. Ormond moved'that the letter of Renata and other Natives of Hawke’s Bay, laid on the table of the House on the 25th instant, bo printed. —Motion agreed to. OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND DEBT APPORTIONMENT BILL. On the motion of Mr; Bell, this Bill was ordered to be re-committed on Monday next. PREVENTION OP IMPORTATION OF DISEASED CATTLE BILL. On the motion of Mr; Wood, the House went into Committee on this Bill, and after some time spent therein, the Chairman reported progress and asked leave to sit again.—Ordered, that this Bill be further considered in Committee on Tuesday next. On the motion of Mr. Fox, the House then adjourned till half-past two. The Speaker resumed the chair at 20 minutes to 3 o’clock. PROVINCIAL AUDIT BILL [NO. 2] Mr. Fox, in rising to move the second reading of the Provincial Audit Bill, said that he desired to save the time of the House by discussing on this motion the merits of the four Bills before the House. There would be no serious difficulty in such a course, because it was simply a trial of strength as to whether one set of principles or another should he adopted,—details being disposed of when the several bills went through Committee. The measure required but little introduction, being a simple measure, which members had had sufficiently long before them. There were three ways in which provision might be made to meet thb administration and legislative wants of the Provinces in this country, involving very different principles, and likely to be attended with very different results. The first was that the duty of protecting'their own interests and providing for their own separate and local wants should be left to the Legislatures of the several provinces. The spirit of the Constitution Act with regard to the Provinces was this, that persons living on the spot and having a personal interest in the good government of the community of which they were members, were best qualified to judge of the necessity of passing particular enactments and framing machinery for the government of those districts. If a Province felt that its public expenditure required control of an executive character, it was within the power of the Provincial Legislature to create machinery, and such a course would he that which naturally resulted from the broad principle as well as details of the Constitution Act. It might be that in a particular Province there might be an apathy to public affairs, and a want of legislative and administrative action much to he deplored, but they would soon find where the shoe pinched and when they had got a few corns, would set to work and find out the best way of remedying the evils which they suffered better than the' General Government could, and consistently with the separate wants of each Province. This was provincialism in the abstract, not ultraprovincialism. Another way was, that this Honse, composed of what were originally provincial elements, should determine what were the necessay institutions for carrying on Provincial Governments, but leave to the Provincial Governments themselves the entire carrying out of the principles so indicated. But though this House consisted of gentlemen elected by the several Provinces, yet it might happen to consist of an aggregate of Provincial minorities, and might pass measures in opposition to the wishes of all the Provinces. The third war was one which was entirely in opposition to the true spirit of the Constitution Act, destructive of Provincial institutions, and one which would only be advocated by ultracoutralists, who desired to aggrandize in the General Government the whole power of administering the local affairs of the Colony, namely, that this House might not only take the function of advising and settling the principles on which local administration should be conducted but also confer on the executive of the General Government of the Colony the power of carrying out those principles into execution. These, then were the three great differences that might exist as to the manner of carrying out the system of self-government bestowed on the Colony by the Constitution Act, and he asked the House to assent to the Bill of which he now moved the second reading, because he believed that if not in conformity with the very best principle, yet it was in conformity with the best that, under existing circumstances he could hope to carry. The best plan would be that it should be left entirely to the Provincial Legislatures to create those checks by which they desired to control the public expenditure of their Provinces. They might suffer at first"from want of those checks, but in course of time the grievance would become so apparent that they would take means to place public monies above the danger of being tampered with. On the other hand, there was the principle contained in the Act brought in by the late Ministry of not only indicating and legislating upon the character of the control, but of vesting in the General Government itself the power of exercising that control, and he hoped was as little likely °to be adopted by the House as the principle he had expressed himself in favor of. Then there was the other principle, of this House indicating the nature of the control, but leaving it to the Provincial Governments to carry the principle into execution. This was the principle of his Bill, and these wore the broad distinctions between the two Bills before the House. The Bill brought in by the late Government proposed to leave the appointment and removal ot the auditors or comptrollers entirely to the General Government, and proposed to attach to any contravention of the rules laid down by the auditor, and to any misappropriation of public money, penalties of tlic most Draconic character* which, independently of the shame attached to their infliction, would be calculated to inflict the greatest possible grievance on those subjected to them. That bill appeared to have been framed by some person who, by a long course of iujut/ inflicted by him on the Provincial Governments, bad ieamt to hate them, and was desirous to add insult to injury, to heap contumely on the Provincial Governments, and to give them a last kick,

f before being deprived of the power to continue i those protracted injuries which it had been, his ; delight to inflict on them for a number of years. [ For what did they find in its provisions ? That' | if a Superintendent misappropriate any money/ j (not criminally), besides having to repay the money l from his own pocket, he would be disqualified for i three years from again filling that office. This Bill ; was deficient only in not containing one other \ provision, viz., That no other person should bo- | come a candidate for the office of Superintendent S unless he can produce a certificate of conviction i at the Old Bailey of a crime involving tranaporta- ! j tion. But that provision was probably omitted, 1 because it was seen to be unnecessary, as the clauses ■j of the Bill would necessarily limit the candidates j for the Superintendenoy to men who if they do not | possess such a certificate of conviction, were at ail events entitled to it. The principle of the Bill was utterly to degrade the Provincial Govern- • ments, so that no honest man would think of hold- ■ iug office in them; but under a semblance of equal (justice, prescribed such a system as would leave : the wrong-doers in the General Government to I escape; for those on whom penalties were inflicted (by the Provincial Governments, could only relieve themselves by obtaining the recommendation ; of his Excellency’s responsible advisers, while in ia General Government case, one of them would ;be the person w r ho committed the offence. . Another objection was one that must to some extent apply to all attempts at public control, viz,, that the machinery provided could be evaded by the most easy methods. The Act provided that before auy warrant could be paid, the auditor should write upon the face of it a certificate stating that the money had been appropriated to the service specified, which must put a stop to any Government whatever, because it was impossible to say that a Superintendent and his Executive should not have the power of expending a farthing beyond what was appropriated. But such a provision could be easily evaded for a Council having any confidence at all in its Executive would get into a habit of voting such great amounts in the shape of contingencies as to reduce the Act to a nullity. He would now contrast that Act with the one he was now moving the second reading. In the first place, the Act of the late Government placed the appointment of the comptroller quite . unnecessarily in the hands of the General Government. The only reason for it must be to effect his independence, but to secure that end it was quite unnecessary he should be appointed by the General Government. He proposed that the Provincial Council, being most immediately interested, should appoint as auditor a comptroller by a warrant of its Speaker, the person elected by an absolute majority of the Council to fill that office. But the power of removal he invested in the Superintendent on the address of two thirds of his Council. Here was a scries of interlacing checks and controls, based on those principles which had always proved most, successful in carrying on the Executive Government of a colony. He was far from thinking that an auditor appointed by the Governor (meaning by his responsible advisers) would be an independent officer, for responsible advisers were not always free from factions and" political motives, and they would be no more secure of the independence of such an officer if appointed by the General Government than if appointed by the Superintendent. Then the removal appeared to be in the same hands as the appointment, and where would be the officer’s independence ? They could gam nothing by authorising the General Government to interfere unnecessarily with the practical administration of Provincial affairs, and as his proposal was free from such objections, he trusted it would meet with approval. By the Act of the late Government the Auditor was required absolutely to write on the face of the warrant, before it could be paid, that the sum specified had been specifically appropriated; a provision which would so impede the action of government as to make it impossible that auy man—not wishing to be subject to overwhelming penalties—could hold office for a moment. It would be most injudicious to prevent a Superintendent from expending a farthing more than appropriated. A lunatic might be sent in from a different part of the Province, as happened the other day at Auckland, requiring the expenditure of £7O, and if the Superintendent had not power to exceed the Appropriation for the year, that lunatic must have been turned at large upon the world. An earthquake might occur, or a flood, or some ordinary convulsion of Nature not foreseen by the Legislature, a bridge might fall, or flagstaff (as at Manukau the other .day) be blown down, and no Superintendent in his senses (knowing he had a hostile General Government perhaps) would think of spending £3OO for its re-erection without due regard to law. It might be answered—“ he must call together his Councilbut if Councils were to be got together on such occasions as these, they would soon be reduced to mere municipalities, for only town members would attend. But he proposed in his Bill a different machinery: that the Auditor should be required to write on the face of every warrant a statement whether the money had been appropriated or not, or was in excess of any appropriation. Thus all the functionaries concerned were informed how the matter stood, and took the additional responsibility of paying such money with their eyes open. This Act also required the Auditor to lay on the table of the House or Council, within a week after its meeting, full particulars of all this expenditure, and if an absolute majority of the House or Council should direct, the Auditor may proceed against the-person who has misspent any money (not criminally) to require him to repay the money out of his own pocket; surely a sufficient penalty. With regard to criminal expenditure, the Auditor is instructed to prosecute immediately, and take steps to recover the money whether or not the criminal prosecution fail. With such a series of checks the Provincial Governments would not be degraded in the eyes of their constituents, and the best possible security would be given to the people that there should be no serious misappropriation of public money. The Bill in fact, went further than he wished, though it was as much as he could expect to carry in the present state of the country. With regard to the General Government, they did not, under a pretence, break a promise to the sense and keep it to the ear; they did not lay penalties on General Government officers which they could avoid, but pro-

vided exactly the same remedies in case of the (General Government as of the Provincial; hut there was this difference between the two institutions, that the appointment of the General Govern■ment officer was left as laid down by the Audit (Act, though it might, perhaps, have been better .to have left the appointment to a majority of twojthirds of the House. While he was prepared to 'stand by the general framework of the two Bills, ;he was quite open to admit of any reasonable (amendment which might be suggested that was mot an infringement on the leading principles of ithe Bills, unless in the direction that action in (these matters should be left to the Provincial Governments ; but ho believed there was no possibility of that, and he would abide by this Bitl in ‘its integrity, subject to such amendments of dofail in Committee as the House might think nroiper. . Mr. Bell said that, owing to Committee Buisiness, ho and other hon. members had not yet been able to look into these bills, and suggested that the second reading should not be proceeded with today, Mr. Fox said his bills had been on the table yesterday, and those of the late Government a fortnight, and he thought there should be no difficulty in reading the bill a second time to-day. Mr. Cahleton would not follow the member, for Eangitiki into the old question of Centralism and Provincialism. He had often explained his views to the House ; he was a strong advocate for local self-goverement, and for that reason had voted for the New Government Act, (hear). The tendencies of the Provinces were essentially centralistie, utterly neglecting the out settlements, which were loud in complaint. He was always desirous to leave as much of the management of their own affairs as possible to the Provincial Governments ; there was no doubt that they were much better able than the General Government; but while giving them abundance of power, he desired to reserve aan ppeal to .gome higher authority against abuse of power. He never would leave individual settlers at the mercy of Provincial Government. Reverting to the question of Audit, he would observe that there were in fact two bills before the House, —that of the late Government, and that of the present Government. For convenience sake, he would name them bills, No. 1 and No. 2. The cardinal distinction between the two was contained in clauses No. 2 of each bill. The second clause of bilPNo. 1 provided that the Governor should appoint the Provincial Auditors. The corresponding clause in bill No. 2 provided that the Auditors should be elected by the Provincial Council. He should not carry the argument beyond that; it was the essential difference, the main point; all minor points conld be settled in Committee, but this affected the second reading of the bill. He would invite atlention to a constitutional point which was either still unnoticed, or which had been forgotten in that House. There appeared to be a general impression that a Provincial Legislature was composed of a Superintendent and a Provincial Council only. But that was a great mistake ; there was a third clement in the legislature—yiz., the Governor, (hear). For the sakeof convenience, he would use an incorrect term and call the Governor an estate. The Governor is an integral portion of Provincial Legislature. It was an independent position. He (Mr. C.) would take this opportunity of enunciating an opinion of his own, in which he supposed that few in this House would support him, —viz., that the Governor was not bound to t ake the advice of his responsible Ministers in regard to the allowance or disallowance of Provincial Acts. He might invite their assistance, but could use his own discretion. Responsible Government was based on a mutual understanding, and ho (Mr. C.) was not aware of any understanding or compact which‘bound the Governor, excepting so far as related to his position in the General Legislature. His position in the Provincial Legislature was one separate and independent, and no compact affecting it had been made. He (Mr, C.) was aware that he was accused of being inclined to extreme opinions ; that was partly true ; but the reason was, that he always looked for a principle, and the proper way of .testing a principle, was the framing of an extreme case. If the principle would cover the case, which of course a principle ought to do, it might generally be trusted ; if not, it behoved us to try back, and look for new premises (hear). Now, if it were admitted that the Governor was a component part of each Provincial Council Legislature, the question remained, to which of those three estates could the appointment of Auditors be most safely entrusted. Certainly not to the Superintendent, for the Auditor was to bo a check upon that officer, not to the Provincial Council, for they might be in league with him ; the Governor was the only party who could be termed disinterested. He (Mr. C.) had endeavoured to carry an Audit Bill through the Auckland Provincial Council, giving the appointment of Auditor to the Governor; and this had been objected to as an invasion of privileges of the Provincial Legislature, by some who did not know what that Legislature was really composed of. The manner in which he was foiled in his attempt, in two successive sessions, was curious. In the first he had challenged the opponents to give an open vote against him ; that was never done, but, it did so happen, that when ever this bill came on, he got counted. In the following session he was foiled by an unexpected prorogation. The great defect of Mr. Pox’s argument in favor of election of the Auditor by the Council, was, that it proceeded throughout on the assumption that Provincial Councils would always do their duty. His experience had not shewn him that ; but without ripping up the past he would put a case hypothetically and point a danger to be provided against. It was always possible that the Superintendent and Council, having the whole control of the Provincial revenue, might join together in expending it for their own advantage. He would not go so far as to suppose anything positively dishonest; but, to give an.instance, he alluded to the great, temptation of providing for the next elections, by an unfair distribution of the revenue—expending the money not for the general advantage of the Province, but where ever votes happened to be thickest. The great difficulty of popular Government was entrusting the people with the money. He could recollect in San Francisco the outcry there was against the town council, who had taxed the citizens heavily, and were generally supposed to

apply the proceeds to the advantage of themselves and friends. But they had got elected and eared for no one. They naturally proceeded to make hay while the sun shone. A check had been provided by our Constitution Act, to hinder the Superintendent and his Council from what was termed in that House, “log-rolling” in concert, by making the Governor part of the lesser Legislature, as well as of the greater. So at least he (Mr. C.) understood the Act. If it were not so a blunder had been committed, of which he did not think the framers of that Act capable, defective as it was in many respects. And if the Constitution Act had made no such provision, it was high time that the General Assembly Should endeavour to supply the defect. He would now consider another part of the question. The member for Eangitikei had insisted on a practical difficulty, which would be felt if Superintendents were closely restricted by law in regard to unauthorized expenditure. He had asked whether if unexpected events of a serious character took place, as for instance, an earthquake, the Superintendent should be debarred from dealing with the occasion. He (Mr. C.) could not deny that earthquakes took place at Wellington; and he himself had felt the great Wellington earthquake even at Auckland (hear from Mr. Eenall.) He had lived in earthquake countries, and knew.the sensation ; he was sitting at a table with several others when that took place; no one but himself knew what was the matter, and he told them what it was. Some few others had felt it, but not many. It was, however, the extreme vibration of that great earthquake. But the hon. member for Eangitikei had shortly afterwards changed his ground. He (Mr. C.) would read the words, which were, that “if the Superintendent was not allowed one farthing of money beyond what authorized by Act, —if he had to get his Provincial Council together for every little matter of this sort, the Provincial legislatures would soon be reduced to the condition of municipalities.” It would be observed that shortly before the hon. member’s argument was based upon great events in fact, upon earthquakes; now, it was reduced to trifles (hear). But it was clear that the lesser difficulty might be got over by making a fair and liberal provision in the Appropriation Act for contingencies (hear, hear.) As to the greater difficulty, the earthquake difficulty, the Superintendent must be content to call his Council together after each. Then again, the hon. member had observed that the most stringent Audit Act could be evaded by passing an Appropriation Act throwing all into the item of contingencies. Of course that could be done, but the Governor would be bound to disallow the Act (hear, hear.) As to the dignity of the Provincial legislatures, about which that hon. member was so solicitous, he (M. C.) could only answer that he did not himself care two straws about it. He had spoken so far concerning the present Government, but did not think that the late Government were free from blame. They had been five years in power; they had been perfectly cognisant all the while of the illegal expenditure of the revenue, and yet it was not until the eleventh hour that they had proposed a remedy. Why had they not brought in their Bill long since. If they had done their duty they would have prosecuted Superintendents in the Supreme Court-long since. He was quite aware of the difficulties alleged—of the incompleteness of the Constitution Act, of the possibility of failure in Court, and of the Government excuse that it was weakening to a Ministry to be beaten. But they could only have been non-suited at the worst not beaten, and their business was to do their duty, as far as they could, without any consideration as to what was weakening to themselves. But he (Mr. C.) had no doubt in his own mind that they could have prosecuted successfully. If unsuccessful, the result would have made apparent the necessity for a stringent Act long since. He would admit that he should have regretted seeing them bring the question to issue against the Wellington Superintendent, because it w r as supposed that they were at feud with that Province ; but they might easily have done so, without imputation of personal feeling, against the Auckland Superintendent, with whom they were at that time on excellent terms. The split had occurred since then; he could readily suppose the cause, though he had no direct knowledge. But what he complained of was, that they had not attempted to bring down a Bill until the quarrel had taken place. They never attempted to do so while they had the power to have carried it, but now, at the eleventh hour, when no party had power, when both sides of the House were paralysed, owing to the close balance of strength, when there was a transition state of the House, they come down with a Bill, and, of course, were met with an opposite Bill. He (Mr. C.) was of opinion that the tendency of opinion in the House was rather towards the Provincial side. If so, Bill No. 2 would be carried; but he should, at all events, record his vote in favour of Bill No. 1. He took his stand on the question whether the Auditors should be appointed by the Governor or elected by the Provincial Councils. (Cheers.) i Mr. Saundebs said that rather than see either Bill passed in its present shape he should vote against both, and if he did not now oppose the second reading it was because he hoped the mover would not go into Committee directly, but give them time to propose necessary amendments. In one respect he preferred the Bill of the late Government, inasmuch as it appeared to provide for locking the stable before the horse was stolen instead of after [Hear] ; but the stringent character of that Bill was sueff as to do away with Provincial institutions altogether. Many eases might occur in which it was necessary that a Superintendent should have power immediately to incur expenditure not previously authorized by the Council, and if the Auditors were prohibited from signing warrants for such expenditure no man would take the office of Superintendent to be treated in • such a manner. He did not object to the Bill of the present Government so far as Colonial Expenditure was concerned, but the dilisrsncs of the two cases was not sufficiently provided for. In the one case the Executive was elected by the House, and therefore not likely to be factiously prosecuted ; but in the Provincial Governments • it often happened that was one of the most bitter feelings of the Council, and every possible means was taken to annoy the Superintendent in power. Under such circumstances it would be wrong to

,put in the power of a party with such motives to (prosecute the Superintendent and make him pay the whole amount of money spent in the public service, but it might be desirable to give power to fine him. There was one objection which has not been sufficiently considered in framing this Bill—that for every petty Province they would require to appoint and pay two new officers: and he thought it would be better to allow the possibility of a little money being improperly spent than ensure a great sum to be uselessly spent annually 'on two officers. If the Provincial Governments felt that they would suffer from Superintendents, they would take care to appoint men they could trust, and it would work much better for the benefit of Provinces to make the electors feel that they incurred a great responsibility, than by any such checks as those proposed, which appeared ofachar- ' acter to drive out of office any straightforward man and which might easily be evaded by a practised bad man. He should not oppose the second reading of either Bill, but if not greatly altered in Committee, ho should vote against the third reading of both. Mr. Jollie moved that this debate he adjourned till Monday, to give members time to examine and compare the two Bills. , Mr. J. C. Richmond seconded the motion. Mr. Fox said the Government would not oppose that motion if the House would go into the estimates to day. Mr. Saunders opposed the motion. Mr. C. W. Richmond supported the adjournment, but declined to give the understanding called for. Mr. Fitzheebeet spoke in favor of going into the Estimates, and protested against delays on party grounds. Mr. Bell disclaimed the slightest party feeling in desiring a little more than twenty-fonr hours consideration of such important measures. It appeared to him that the Bill of the hon. member at the head of the Government was totally at varience with the statement previously made by him that he would carry out the same object by a different way. On the cursory examination wliich he [Mr. B.] had been able to give, it appeared to him that this pledge had not been carried out at all. Mr. Carleton thought the proposal made from the Treasury bench was a fair one, as there were two important substantial questions to bo considered in Committee of Supply—the motion of the hon. member for City West (Mr. Firth), and that of the hon. members for Lyttelton ; and if it were necessary to go into the Estimates after them, there were certain sums of no party bearing which could at any time be carried. Mr. Richmond said he had not opposed going into Supply, but that he would consider the question when it came on. Question put and agreed to. The Colonial Treasurer moved—That this House go into Committee of Supply. Mr. Stafford did not object to the motion, and though there had been a charge made against his side of the House he considered it scarcely right to proceed with the Estimates before the financial ■ statement had appeared in a print for hon members’ reference- This was a noticeable omission on the part of the Government; if hon members alluded to the statement before an authorised report of it had been printed by the G overnment and laid before them—they might have it go forth to the country in reply—oh! this is not a correct report of it. [Hear, hear.] A very fair general report of the financial statement had appeared in a journal of this morning, but it was not exactly accurate —there were errors in the figures which might be typographical, and also errors in the verbal explanations. He trusted the hon. member would take the advantage of seeing that the statement would appear accurate in a journal which was noted for the labor bestowed and facilities afforded by its conductors to make the reports accurate. In calling the hon. member’s attention to this he had no dsire to delay business —but to explain that such accomadation had been afforded to members of this House in previous sessions. The. hon member reminded the Government, that if he agreed to now, go into Committee of Supply, there were other questions for consideration, such as the motion of the hon. member for Lyttelton and the Steam Report. Mr. Wood observed that he was not aware that it was the wish of the House that his statement should be printed—or otherwise he would have taken measures to have reported what he said in his own language. He would tell the House exactly what had been done, an exceedingly accurate report bad been furnished to him by the Editor of the New Zealander with a request that he would correct it, which he had done so far as the figures went, and he believed that it would be published to-morrow. He had been informed (that there was a report of his statement in the Southern Cross of this morning, but he had not time to examine a single word or figure as to whether it was correct or not. He had been requested to call at the office at half-past seven o’clock last evening to revise the figures, but he found he would not have time to make such a revision as to give it really the force of a Ministerial statement. As regards the figures for the other report, he had revised them and he believed it would bo published to-morrow.

A girl advertised, in a German newspaper, for a situation as barmaid or waitress in a refreshment saloon. Amongst her qualifications for such a position, she says she can cut 225 pieces of bread and butter, of satisfactory appearance, out of one pound of bread and two ounces of butter. Corn as Fuel. —On a certain portion of the Illinois prairies corn is being used as fuel instead of coal, and is found an excellent substitute. In the district referred to, corn is 13 £ cents per bushel, and coal is 12 to 17 cents. Not only is the difference in price in favor of corn, but a bushel of it gives more heat than a bushel of coal. — -American Paper. Pat in a Hobble. —An Irishman got out of the cars at a railway station for refreshment, and unfortunately the bell rang and the train left before he had finished his repast. “Hould on! ” cried Pat, as he ran like mad after the tram, “Hould on, ye murtherin old sthame-ingm—ye ye got a passenger aboard that’s left behind.”