PARLIAMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 30 August 1880, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

(tjy telegraph.) Wellington, August 28.

The Council met at 11 a. m.

In answer to Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Whitaker said the system of storm warning signals would be continued practically the same as hitherto.

The Governor sent a message saying that he had reserved the Decked Wife*s Sister Marriage Bill for the signification of the Queen's pleasure. The Financial Arrangements Bill, Public Revenues Bill, Customs Tariff Bill, Wellington Harbor Board and Corporations Land Bill, and Lodgers Goods Protection Bill passed all their stages. An attempt was made to throw out the two first by Mr. Reynolds and Colonel Whitmore respectively, but the Bills were affirmed.

The Council adjourned from 1.15 till 4. The Public Works Bill and the Hokitika Harbor Loan Bill then passed all the stages, the drainage clauses in the former measure being struck out. The Council adjourned at §.3,Q till 2.30 on Monday.

The House met at 7.30 p.m.

Mr-. Montgomery applied that the member for 1/unstan should be heard in further explanation. The application was agreed to, and the Sergeant-at-Arms was instructed to bring in Mr. Pyke. Mr. Shepherd moved that strangers be excluded.

The motion, being objected to, was withdrawn.

Mr. Pyke was then brought in by the Sergeant-at-Arms and took his seat. The Speaker: Mr. Pyke, the House gives you another opportunity to explain your Qonduct while in Committee of the House this morning. Do you desire to avail yourself of it 1 Mr. Pyke said : Mr. Speaker, the explanation I have to make is this—Whenever I heard myself desired by the ActingChairman to sit down, I did so at the time. Hon. members on all sieves of me were shouting out " Sit down !" Sit do ivn !" The remark J made that I would I not sit clown wa3 addressed by me to those I members, and not to the Chairman ; and I beg also to add that I intended no disrespect to either the Committee or the Chairman. I beg also to state that certain language imputed by the papers to the Sergeant-at-Arms when he visited me in the gallery is erroneous. That officer did his duty without using any improper or disrespectful language. The Speaker then put the question that the explanation be accepted, a response being made in tiie afSm'ative. Mr. Pyke aaid that he regretted that he had inadvertently been the cause of a disturbance. Mr. Hall asked leave to withdraw the motion censuring Mr. Pyke, which was granted. Mr. Tole withdrew }iis The Speaker said he wished to be clearly understood. The House had ample power to punish refractory members, and although in this case the power had not been exercised, the present case was not to be taken as a precedent.

Mr. Moorhouse corroborated what Mr. Pyke said re the language alleged to have been used by the Sergeant-at-Arms when he took Mr. Pyke into custody "in the Press Gallery. He added that at the time he was in a position to hear what passed.

The House then went into Committee on the Supplementary Class 3. —Item, purchase of waggons, L 22,000. Mr. Saunders said that if the railway workshops were to be kept on, the priety of which he doubted, waggons ought to be made in those shops. The Government kept a large number of men as a stand-by, and by adding this as a department to these shops, it might be the means of keeping them fully employed. He hoped the Government would take under their protection the witnesses who gave straightforward manly evidence to the Civil Service Commission. They • had already seen that the South Island Commissioner had recommended some of these men to be removed out of the w»y a and there wag only too much reason to suppose, if these recommendations were given effect tft, not qne honest man would be left on the South Island railways, He therefore hoped the Government would proteot their witnesses from prosecution and injustice to which their evidence, given before the Commissioners, was liable .to subject them. That appeal was the more necessary, seeing that the recommendation of the Commissioners had not been carried out.

* Mr. Oliver said he would give the House the assurance that no Civil servant

suffer in consequence of the evidence he might have given before that Commission. Mr. Richardson was glad of the assurance just given. He had only that day received a telegram fropi two of these witnesses to the effect that they were being subjected to much persecution on. account of the evidence they had given. The item was agreed to. Item, provision for unemployed, ! L 75,000. Mr. Oliver explained that he intended to disperse these labor gangs over the colony on suoh works as might be most convenient. Mr. Macandrew objected to a Government having sums of money like this to spend without a definite understanding as to the works upon which it was to be expended. Mr. Adams moved that the vote be reduced L 20,000. Mr. Hall said a heavy responsibility would rest on the members if they refused the Government power to spend this money if it was required. Not one shilling of it would be spent unless absolutely necessary. The mover had not yet time to say where the unemployed could be most advantageously employed. The vote, provision for unemployed, was passed as printed. The remainder of the Supplementary Estimates were passed, and on the motion for the adoption of the report, Sir George Grey asked leave to move a motion to the effect that the proclamation over the Patetere Block of land should not be removed during the recess, nor till the conditions of the removal have been first submitted for approval to the House. Leave being refused, the motion for the adoption of the report was carried. A message was received from the Governor announcing that the Deceased Wife's Sister Marriage Bill had been reserved for the assent of Her Majesty. The Property Assessment Amendment Bill, providing only for a simplified schedule, was introduced, and passed through all its stages. The Council's amendments in the Public Worfes Bill, Hokitika Harbor Loan Bill, Otago Harbor Board Bill, and other Bills, were agreed to. The House at 11.40 adjourned to 11 a.m. on Monday. TO-DAY'S SITTING. Wellington, August 30. The House met at 11 a.m. The amendments made by message from the Governor in the Financial Arrangejments Act and the Public Works Bill were agreed to. ' Sir George Grey tabled a long series of resolutions about the Palere block, which are being discussed on a motion for adjournment.