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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4817, 30 August 1876, Page 2

In the House of Bepresesentatives yesterday Mr. Macandrew gave notice of the following motion on the House going into Committee of Supply on Friday next:—“ Whereas the Abolition of Provinces Act, 1875, is repugnant to the wishes and detrimental to the interests

of the people in the Province of Otago, and whereas it would be highly subversive of the first ■ principles of , good government to deprive any section of her Majesty’s subjects against their will and without their consent of those political institutions which were conferred upon them by the Imperial Parliament, and under which they have grown up and prospered,—lt is therefore resolved that a respectful address be transmitted to his Excellency the Governor to the effect that he may be pleased at the earliest possible date to dissolve the Provincial Legislature of Otago, and to cause a fresh election of Superintendent and Provincial Council, so as to afford the people in the said province an opportunity of considering and determining as to the form of local self-government most suitable for their requirements; and that pending the will of the people being ascertained as aforesaid, his Excellency may be pleased to take the necessary steps so as that the provisions of the said Abolition Act shall be Held in abeyance as respects the Province of Otago. Resolved further that in the meantime, and pending the decision of the newly elected Provincial Legislature, the affairs of the said province shall continue to be administered in terms of the New Zealand Constitution Act.”

The following are the new clauses to be moved by Mr. Waterhouse ou the committal of the Land Transfer Act Amendment Bill: “No contribution shall be payable to the assurance fund upon the first bringing of land under the said Act by grant from the Crown, nor upon the first bringing of land under the said Act upon the application of the proprietor thereof, if in such last-mentioned case it shall appear to the District Land Registrar and Examiner of Titles for the district within which such land is situate that the applicant proprietor is the original grantee from the Crown, and that no sale contract mortgage encumbrance or other transaction affecting the title of such applicant proprietor has been at any time registered.”—“ The provisions of the Conveyancing Ordinance Amendment Act, 1860, and of the Sales by Mortgagees Act, 1870, shall not extend or apply to mortgages created or to be created under the provisions of the said Act.”—“ It shall be lawful for the Governor, if in his opinion the circumstances of any now existing Land Registration District shall so require, to appoint the District Land Registrar of such district, if a barrister or solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, to bo also Examiner of Titles in and for the same district, and any person so appointed may hold the said offices conjointly; but in no district hereafter to be formed shall the two offices of Registrar of Land and Examiner of Titles be held by the same person.”—“ Any person who not being the holder of a license as a land broker under the said Act, or of a certificate then in force to the effect that he is ou the roll of the Supreme Court as a barrister or solicitor thereof, shall transact business under the said Act, or shall wilfully and falsely pretend to be entitled to transact such business, shall for each such offence forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds.” The above are to besubstituted for clauses 3,5, 6, and 7.

The following if a copy of the report of the Rabbit Nuisance Committee :—The select committee appointed to inquire into the rabbit nuisance have the honor to report that they have carefully studied the reports of inquiries into the subject in the Australian colonies, in New Zealand, and elsewhere. They have also examined a sufficient number of witnesses to confirm beyond , doubt the facts of the case. The mischief already done is most serious, is increasing, and unless some effectual remedy he adopted is likely to increase. The committee recommend that a Bill should be introduced into the Legislature without delay to establish an inexpensive machinery by which the owners or occupiers of land may be compelled to keep in check tho increase of rabbits on their holdings. The committee are of opinion that such a Bill might be extended so as to include pigs and other noxious animals. They further think that a grant of money for the purpose of introducing weasels as a natural check into the country would (if the object were attained) be of very great service. The committee call the attention of the House especially to the evidence of Captain Walker, Conservator of the State Forests, showing that forest planting by the Government will be useless expense if rabbits are allowed to multiply uncontrolled in the neighborhood of plantations.