POLITICAL NOTES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 588, 26 July 1913, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

MrT .M .Wilford is the author of a Gaming Amendment Bill, the second introduced this session. Be seekß to provide that the 250 totalisator licenses now allowed by law shall be available upon 250 specific days. In determining the allocation of totalisator permits, preference shall be given (without prejudice to the renewals of existing licenses) to the claims of those country racing clubs and trotting clubs whose licenses were not renewed, or the number of days covered by same were reduced, in accordance with the report of the Commission appointed in 1910. After the claims if the country racing clubs and trotting clubs have been duly provided for, the Minister of Internal affairs may, on the application of any registered hunt club not being the holder of a totalisator license, grant to such club a license to use the totalisator on one day, but the number of these icenses shall not exceed ten, and no hunt club hall receive more than one license in any year.

The spread of the blackberry nuisance is the subject of inquiries by Sir Walter Buchanan and Mr Wilkinson. The former wants the Government to take the necessary steps to ascertain the extent to which the noxious weed known as blackberry is spreading over the landsof the Dominion, and endeavour to discover some effective means to arrest the alarming rate of itt* increase. The member for Egmont invites the Minister of Agriculture to check the sale of blackberry plants by seedsmen, who advertise the same for public sale by catalogue.

"Does not the Prime Minister consider that the time has arrived tor a Royal Commission to be set up to investigate the operations of the "butter rings," and does he not think that the people of New Zealand have been exploited"? asks the member for Hutt.

It is a well-known but unacknowledged fact among membtrs of Parliament that private members' day is too often the occasion of time wasting for the purpose of blocking the Bills of some member whose measure contains awkward problems for hiß fellow Parliamentarians to divide upon. Providing such a measure can be stalled off by talking out a previous Bill, which of itself possesses nothing of great public interest, the predicament is avoided, and the inconvenient measure, in nine cases out of ten, is effectually killed for the session. This aspect stirred the Hon. R. McKenzie to raise a protest on Wednes day night. "The sooner this Parliament sets up a committee to which can be referred private members' Bills to decide whether they shall go for a second reading or not. the better," declared Motueka. "When I see gambles and anti gamblers joining forces to defeat a Bill by talking it out, I am satisfied a change is wanted. Now that we have a Reform Government they should take up the suggestion I offer them. I believe," be added, "in every measure being deal with on its merits, but the farcical method we follow now is not the way to deal with a Bill, or to facilitate the country's legislation." (Laughter and "Hear, haar.")

Mr Okey asked the Minister for Railways on Wednesday whether he would, in the interets of women travelling with children on the New Zealand railways consider the advisability of placing on all mail trains a carriage in which women travelling with children will have preference. Mr Herries replied: "The experience in New Zealand in respect to carriage provided for special purposes is that they are seldom used to any extent, and the consequence is that additional cars have to be run on trains, and not infrequently a second engine has to be attached merely on account of the additional weight of the special car. The experience in this country has been that ladies travelling alone or with children prefer as a rule to ride in the ordinary carriages. If ladies showed a predisposition to travel together in the same car the department would be only too glad to give them the necessary accommodation."