GOVERNMENT BILLS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1323, 30 June 1883, Page 2

GOVERNMENT BILLS.

The following are the principal Government Bills for the session, having been already read a time —Local Courrs, Married Womens Exchange, Fisheries, Tenants’ Fixtures, Public Trustees, 1 fixation, Mining Amendment, General peases of Members, Legislative Salaries, Parliamentary Privileges, Land Law Amendment, Native Land Court Amendment, Government Life Insurance, Life Insurance Policies. Consolida'ion Bills :—Criminal Code, Municipal Corporalions, Coun ties, Property Law, Trusts and Trustees, Patents, Savings Banks, and Town Districts.

The Bills above enumerated, are the principal ones, but there are several smaller Bills of both classes to be introduced. The Impounding Bill is one of considerable importance, and is similar in many respects I o that passed in 1880. It largely affects the law of trespass. No occupier of unfenced land can claim damages for trespass of cattle, but occupiers of fenced land may sue for trespass rates, as defined in the first schedule, or actual damages. Should pigs or goats trespass a second time within three months double trespass rates may be charged. The occupier of land under artificial grass or under cultivation may destroy pigs, goats, or poultry trespassing thereon, provided that he within 24 hours senas notice to their owner that he has done so. All unbranded cattle above six fnonths eld, or apparently so, shall be Crd*n property. So person impounding cattle shall be liable for pound fees. No cattle shall be driven off land not in the occupation of the person driving them without 24 hours’ notice having been first given, but nothing in this section is to affect the provisions of any Sheep Act. The Fisheries Bill provides protection for fish of all sorts, and for their fry and ova, and of oysters, and also of seals; but the clauses relating to nets, &c., do not apply to landing nets, nor does it aff et any person taking fish in water of which he is the owner, or any person having permission from the owner or from any Collector Of Customs or other authorised persons by the Commissioner of Trade and Customs to remove ova or fry for the purpose of breeding. The Bill contains ft long list of regulations as to sire of nets, dates of close times, &c., which the Governor may bring into operation in any particular district by proclamation. A fine of £2O is imposed for using dynamite, or any explosive substance to destroy fish, or using a fixed tied; and all drag-nets are to be eratied in the water, and upon dry land. Al} fish, oysters, and seal, or blubber Unlawfully taken, together with all tackle employed, may be confiscated. The Governor has power to close any fisheries for three years if it is deemed necessary, and may set apart any bays, or other pieces of water, to be left undisturbed for the natural proapgation of fish. Exclusive licenses may, under certain conditions, be granted, and permissive licenses for artificial oysterbeds, may also be obtained. Eels are concluded from the provisions of the Act. This, and the setting apart the natural breeding places of fish, are the new clauses in the Act, f which may be deemed a most necessary and highly useful one. Sir George Grey's Constitution Amendment No 2 Bill provides that, in the case of a Bill making an amendment in the Constitution being passed in one branch of the Assembly and being rejected in the other, and upon a resolution being passed, the Speaker of that branch of the Legislature in which • the amendment was passed shall transmit the amendment to the Governor, who shall thereupon cause the resolution to be submitted to a plebiscite, and if a majority of votes of the electors for members of the House of Representatives shall be receded in favor of the resolution, it > shall have the same force and effect : as if it had been enacted tn the ordin- I ary way by the General Assembly.