THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4195, 31 August 1874, Page 3

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Both Houses have sat during the month. As it is impossible'to present even an abridged report of the proceedings of the two Houses, we follow the plan adopted last month, and give the essence of the business done in the following Parliamentary Notes : LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. BUSINESS OP THE SESSION. To-day both Houses meet, when His Excellency will prorogue Parliament. This is the fourth session of the fifth Parliament. The session has been a short but not an unimportant one. It has passed an Act for the establishment of State Porests ; and it has agreed to resolutions for the abolition of Provincialism in the North Island, and asked the Ministry to submit in the next session a scheme of local government to supersede that of the Provinces. Efficiency and cheapness are expected from the new system which will be introduced. TUB FORESTS BIEL. The members of the Legislative Council are to be congratulated upon the course they have adopted in dealing with the State Porests Bill. They were tolerably unanimous, not only in its favor, but in the wish that it had come before their House, not in a mutilated form, but in the larger and more comprehensive aspect that it presented when it first appeared before the Assembly. Of course Mr. Waterhouse did not see the matter in this light ; and Mr. Mantell, who has views of his own on this and other matters, sided with him. But the Council was in so favorable a mood that the second reading of the Bill was carried without a division ; and the Bill was read a third time without amendments, and passed. MANAGEMENT OP LUNATIC ASYLUMS. In the Legislative Council on August 11 the Hon. Captain Eraser, clinched his argument in favor of the better management of Asylums by giving a case that had come under his own personal knowledge. A gentleman, said he, came to this Colony many years ago and acquired a large property. Then ho was induced to make a will devising this to the family of a relative. This relative, after one or two failures, obtained his incarceration in an Asylum as a dangerous lunatic. Por seven years the unfortunate gentleman who, though weak minded, is perfectly harmless and inoffensive, has boon thus confined. After he had boon deprived of his liberty throe years, the medical visitor to the Asylum certified to the above effect ; and Captain Prasor said ho hoped the Colonial Secretary wovdd ascertain for himself what the facta of the case were, and take immediate action it the health of the unfortunate man should not ho irrecoverably broken down by his confinement. The Council agreed to the motion of the lion, member for further ..inquiry into the management of the Lunatic Asylums of the Colony. HOUSE OF BEPIIESENTATIY.es. THE MINISTBY AND MR. o'IIORKE. On August 1 i Mr. Vogel submitted the Ministerial resolutions on the subject of Provincialism in the North Island. He spoke for an hour and twenty-three minutes. At the close, when the hon. member for Solwyn was expected to rise to “bell the cat,” something in the nature of a surprise was experienced by the House. Mi - . O’Korke rose and stated that he was no party to the resolutions that had been submitted to the House. He had not changed

his opinion on the subject of Provincialism, and was not given to tergiversation. If he had known that in his armoury the Premier carried the treacherous dagger for the purpose of stabbing the Provinces, he would not have been one of his colleagues. Mr. Vogel rose to make a personal explanation, but Mr. Fitzherhert at once and brusquely objected on the ground that the Premier had already spoken. The Speaker did not think , the Premier was out of otclcr in making a personal explanation. Mr. Vogel then said it was due to himself, the Ministry, and the House, that he should explain that when he addressed the House he spoke in name of the Ministry. The subject had been discussed in the Cabinet, and the hon. member (Mr. O’Rorke), who, he presumed, was still one of his colleagues, had not intimated that he objected to the resolutions, and had given them no hint whatever of his intention to dissent from the course they had resolved upon, or to make a statement to the House. He had no doubt, however, that if the hon. member chose to withdraw from the Government, they would be able to carry on the business of his department. Pie made him welcome to whatever political capital he (Mr. O’Rorke) could make out of the speech he had just delivered. At a later hour of the evening, Mr. Vogel intimated to the House that Mr. O’Eorke had sent in his resignation to His Excellency, by whom it had been accepted. PERSONAL EXPLANATION. Before the main business of the House was proceeded with on Wednesday, Mr. Vogel made a short statement on two matters of a personal character. In the debate on tbe Boan Bill the other evening, he had. been charged by several hon. members with having given a pledge that he would limit the amount of short-dated bills to one million Stirling. Two hon. members were good enough to rise and say that he had.not said anything to fetter his course in that matter. He did not sufficiently remember what he had said, to be able to make a statement; but, when the slips reached him of Hansard's report, he looked over them and found nothing in the nature of a pledge. In reply to the question of Hr. O’Korke, he had referred to two English cases to show what the practice was, when a member left a Cabinet in consequence of a disagreement with his colleagues. He had not done .so with strict accuracy, and he desired to correct his remarks. He then stated what had occurred in the instances to which he had referred. The Speaker stated that the slips of Hansard came first to his hands, and he found that his own recollection was confirmed, that the Premier had not given the pledge attributed to him. What have Mr. Fitzhei-bert and Mr. Keeves to say '! THE PREMIER AND THE SUPERINTENDENT OP WELLINGTON. Bather a warm passage at arms occurred over the Wellington Land Payments Bill in Committee of the House. The Premier took exception to the Bill, as no limit whatever was placed upon the extent to which land might he given in payment for public works—an arrangement which he regarded as most wasteful. The hon. member for the Hutt, with marked personal feeling, asked why the Marlborough Bill had not been objected to, and why it was that it was only when the AVellington Bill was before the Committee that they were treated to this homily on prudence. He took the occasion also to say that if he had been in his place on the previous evening he would have stated that there was not a tittle of truth in a statement the Premier had made as to the financial relations of the Colonial Government and the Province of Wellington. He hazarded the conjecture also that votes were to he bought, and, therefore, the Taranaki Bill had not been opposed. Mr. Vogel, in reply, observed that he had not been so long before the public as the hon, member for the Hutt, but he would leave it to the House to say whether he ever made statements which he did not thoroughly believe to be true. He thought the hon. member for the Hutt should have remembered a late correspondence with regard to the Auditor-General. As to buying votes, it might be that it was impossible for an hon. member, who had long moved in a certain groove, to think as others did who did not move in the same groove. There never was a Government, he added, which had less need to buy votes than that which at present held office. A SOLEMN BIT OF BUSINESS. The House of Kepresentatives was engaged on Tuesday in a very solemn bit of business. It arose out of the petition presented by an elector of Waitemata against the return of Mr. Von der Heyde. A bar had been erected very like a Brobdiguagian towel-horse, or the head portion of a modern English bedstead —behind the centre cross-bench, and behind it twain were two chairs, one of modern and the other of media:vel type, for the accommodation of strangers or prisoners—the strangers in the gallery were unable to decide which. Then the Sergeant-at-Arms was instructed from the Chair to examine the precincts of the House, and, arming himself with the authority of a lethal weapon, in the shape of the mace, he duly did so. Returning, and depositing the emblem of the authority of the House in its accustomed place, the Speaker mildly inquired whether any hon. member knew whether the petitioner was represented by counsel i The hon. member for Dunstau ventured, in a mild whisper, to say that he thought counsel were in attendance. Thereupon the Sergeant-at-Arms was again instructed to make a voyage of discovery in the precincts, and he speedily returned, bringing under his convoy Messrs. Moorhouse and Buckley, in full professional robes, who took their stand behind the bedstead, the former representing the sitting member (Mr. Von der Heyde), and the latter the petitioner. The Speaker then invited Mr. Yon der Heyde to name a member ■of the Select Committee about to be appointed to take care of his interests. The hon. member named Mr. Reader Wood. Counsel for the petitioner was then asked to select a member to represent the petitioner, and Mr. Buckley responded .by naming Mr. R. J. Creighton. The Speaker next named Mr. Walter Johnston as chairman. The gentlemen of the long robe were then informed that they had the gracious leave of the House to retire. They did so, and this most solemn piece of business was over. THE TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

The annual report of the Telegraph Department is tinted the 24th instant, and was laid before Parliament on Wednesday. It states that the progress of the department during the year had been satisfactory, the revenue, which amounted to £15,000, having exceeded the estimates by £2OOO. This is all the more satisfactory since it was in November last that the tariff was considerably reduced, both for private and Press messages. We observe that the number of Press messages, chiefly in consequence of that reduction, had increased during the year by 17,000, or over fifty per cent., though the cash received, was £6OO less than in tho corresponding period of the previous year. Tho amount received from the Press was £IOO6. Messages to the number of 752,899 hjbd been transmitted during the year. That number showed an increase of 183,939, or rather of more than twenty-four per cent. Eight thousand money orders had been transmitted by telegram in the course of the year, representing a sum of £38,052, or an increase of 2210 messages and £9945 in amount. Tho commission collected by tho P«. st-Office was £1035, of which £4OO was due to the Telegraph Department for fees, leaving a profit of £634. Tho largest number were issued iu Dunedin, Wellington, and Christchurch respectively ; aud the second largest amount paid was by Auckland. The extent of line maintained during the year was 2530 miles, at a cost of £6 3s. lid. per mile. Twelve new offices were opened in tho course of tho year. Tho lines earned £59,875, a sum which left £6026 as interest ou an expended capital of £249,594. Per every hundred letters transmitted by post the number of messages was over twenty-three ; and in some Provinces tho per centage was as high as twenty-eight. ■ At the close of the year, 2530 miles of line, carrying 5182 miles of wire, were iu circuit, aud it was contemplated to make large additions to the mileage in' the course of the year, to meet the increasing business of tho department. The report, which is signed by Sir. Vogel, closes with a note from the Premier to Mr. Lemon, the Telegraph Commissioner, iu which he writes

with reference to Mr. Lemon’s discovery of the mode of conducting duplex telegraphy ; “ I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of the Government, the expression of their recognition of the service you have been able to render the Colony, and their thanks for the same. I desire also to request that you will convey the thanks of the Government, for the assistance they have rendered in tins important improvement in the system of telegraphy, to Mr. McAlister, the assistant officer in charge of the Wellington station, and Mr. Smith, the mechanician to your department, by the latter of whom all the apparatus now in use was made.” DISTILLATION TO CEASE. Mr. Vogel intimated on Friday that the Government proposed to give effect to the report, so far as they understood it, of the Select Committee of the House appointed to inquire into the question as to what compensation, if any, should be given to the distillers of Dunedin and Auckland in consequence of the proposed action of the Government as to the Excise duties. He stated that it was proposed, as far as possible, to put a stop to distillation in tbe Colony. For that purpose an arrangement had been made, subject to the approval of the House, under which the Dunedin company would receive a sum of £20,000 as compensation, having leave to distil to the extent of seventy thousand gallons between the Ist of July last and the 30th of June next, when their operations will entirely cease. The Auckland company will receive £7500, and will he allowed to work up then’ present stock of materials. They also will then cease distillation. Steps will now be taken to equalise the Excise and Customs duties on spirits, should the House approve of the arrangement. THE IMMIGRATION LOAN. On August 11, Mr. Vogel moved the second reading of the Immigration and Public Works Loan Bill. Including the amount of the loan of five millions proposed, the debt of the Colony would amount to ten millions, which was apportioned thus :—£6,500,000 for railways, £1,500,000 for immigration ; £460,000 for roads in the North Island; £350,000 for another purpose ; £700,000 for land purchases, and £490,000 for the extension of telegraphs, lighthouses, &c. .THE MYSTERIOUS LAW. In the course of the debate in the House on Friday, July 31, on the New Zealand Forests Bill, Sir C. Wilson explained “ the mysterious law” which had been spoken about earlier in the evening, so far, at least, as it referred to the forests of the country. He said that much ; of the native trees were of a kind the roots of which did not penetrate deep into the soil, but stretched for a considerable distance close to the surface. When roads were formed and settlement proceeded draining followed, the roots lost their usual supply of water, and the trees began to decay. SHIPPING OP THE COLONY. The Commissioner of Customs, Mr. Reynolds, in moving the second reading of the Bill for the establishment of Naval Training Schools, supplied some statistics relating to the shipping trade of the Colony which it way be well to record. At tbe beginning of the present year, he said, there were registered in the Colony 411 vessels, representing in the aggregate 3035 tons, and the 1 crews employed in navigating these vessels numbered 2003 souls. In addition, he thought we were justified in including in Colonial shipping the eight vessels of firstclass character and large dimensions belonging to the New Zealand Slipping Company—slips which would require, as crews, about two hundred seamen. As yet, these ships were not registered in the Colony, but in all probability it would not be long before they would be so registered, and there was reason to suppose that, in the course of a little time, the ships of that company, and of other Colonial owners, would supersede, in the carrying trade, the ships of other parts of the world, and that the Colony would, in that particular, be independent of other countries. It was, he said, to supply seamen for tils Colonial fleet that the present Bill had been introduced, and he contended that it was not by any means too early to take up the question with which it dealt. The Bill simply provided for the establishment of naval training schools either on shore or afloat, in which boys could receive a thorough training in seamanship, and; with that object, the Government intended to take steps to procure from the Imperial Government one or more of the old men-of-war, at the same time mailing provision that the boys under instruction should go to sea for four months in the year. In the Australian Colonies, the great difficulty, Mr. Reynolds remarked, had been that the boys were put on board stationary ships in harbor, but by the plan proposed here the boys would be trained at sea as well as in port. The department was to be presided over by a Minister, probably the Commissioner of Customs, who had charge of the Marine Department, and all the moneys necessary were to be voted by the General Assembly. The Commissioner furnished the House with further mfox-matiou as to the details of the Bill, and the intentions of the Government. SONS OP NATIVE CHIEFS. The education of sons of Native chiefs was the subject of a question in the House. Mr. McLean stated that the subject had received the earnest attention of the Government. It was desired to encourage the village schools for the education of the Native youth ; and the Ministry were desirous that the sons of Native chiefs should receive the best education possible in English institutions, where they would be brought in contact with youths of the other race. A beginning had been made in Auckland, and also in Wellington ; and one young Maori gentleman, trained in Wellington, had passed a very creditable examination. The education of the two races in the same classes would effectually remove the difficulties between the two races. ABOLISHMENT OF THE NORTH ISLAND PROVINCES. A very important statement was made to the House of Representatives on August 6 by the Premier. He reminded the House that in the late debates, and especially during that on the State Forests Bill, considerable attention had been given to the subject of Provincialism in the North Island. The figures he bad presented to the House on the subject relating to the Province in which they were now met, had made a strong impression on his own mind, and must have done so on the minds of hon,-members. , It, had been pressed upon him that the Provinces should be abolished in the North Island ; that Wellington should be recognised as the capital; and the compact of 1806 ratified by Act of Parliament. He was assured by members on all sides of the House that there was a largo majority ready to support such a proposition. He thought, however, that so largo a change should not be exposed to the charge of being surprise legislation, or of anything in the nature of a coup d etat. The Ministry, therefore, did not to introduce legislation on the subject this session. They believed that the country would support the abolition of Provincial institutions in the North Island, but would prefer that the motion should come from the people themselves. He took the earliest opportunity to inform the country through the House that it was the intention of the Government to deal with the matter next session ; and to say that the Government did not pledge themselves either to bring in, or not to bring in, resolutions on the subject during the present session. The announcement made by the Premier seemed to be received with general satisfaction. WEBB'S BENALTIES. Mr. Vogel laid before Parliament on August 6 a letter from Mr. Thomas Russell, on the subject of the penalties incurred by Mr. Webb in connection with the San Francisco mail service. He stated, at the same time, that he had informed the House earlier in the session that the Government would not determine what course they would take in connection with this matter until they had an opportunity of consulting Mr. Russell. The Ministry had now come to the conclusion not to risk the expenditure of money in an endeavor to recover those penalties from Mr. Webb. NEW PLYMOUTH ENDOWMENT BILL. The New Plymouth Endowment Bill has passed in both Houses. Mr Vogel took the opportunity, of the second reading of, stating that tho Government had come to the determination not tb permit any harbor works to be earned out, the plans of which had not been examined and approved by tho officers of the General Government.