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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1598, 31 July 1874, Page 306

The Ward-Chapman Committee has obtained an extension of time of fourteen days to bring up its report. Judge Ward is on his way to Wellington. A Taranaki telegram, 29th J'lly, reports :—A boat has returned from Mokau with a cargo ef pigs and fungus. The crew report that the natives were most friendly, and cooked food, and made them very welcome. The land is well timbered at Mokau, and there is coal sixteen miles up the river. The natives want a store here. Horses and cattle are in abundance. The natives will permit the steamer Go-a-head two or three trips before deciding upon opening Mokau to all. Two of the crew remained behind to visit the coal field, aud go up the river. Two natives were sent back in the boat to fill their place. The natives say they do not mind a. schooner of about forty tons going into the river, but object to a steamer visiting. Before the boat was allowed to enter, a ceremony was gone through by the natives removing the tapu from the river. The country is reported as broken, but fine table land lies behind the ranges. The new Government Bill amending the Constitution Act, which was introduced into the Council on Tuesday, provides that any Bill which is introduced into the Lower House, and subsequently disallowed by the Legislative Council, or by the Lower House, because of an amendment in the Council, after being introduced into the Assembly and carried without amendments that are considered substantial by the Governor, may be brought before a cmbined Chamber, consisting of not fVvver than thirty-five members of either House, and there carried, or the contrary. The Governor shall have the power of declaring what Bill is or is not " rejected" in the meaning of the Act, and he will publish in the Gazette a proclamation to this effect convening the combined Chamber. The Speaker of the Legislative Council will preside, and he will have the casting vote on the question that the Bill under consideration shoult) pass. The Governor may, until the first meeting of the Chamber, make rules' for its guidance, and he may, at any subsequent period, propose amendments in any Bill, which shall receive due consideration. No Bill can pass the chamber until fifty-five members have voted in its favor. The Chamber cannot sit during a period of dissolution, and Bills assented to by it will be in the same position as those passed iu the ordinary manner.