LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Southland Times, Issue 1275, 5 July 1870, Page 3

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Fbiday, June 17. The Hon. Mr Gißborrierobtained r leave! to bring in a bill to amend the law relating to letters patent for inventions, the proposed alteration being to give the public the- right of inspection ; . also a, bill .to extend r the time under which the award relative to the apportionment-of-the.. Wellington and Hawke's Bay public debt niight be given. The second reading of the above bills was fixed for the 21st. The address in reply was then moved by the Hon. Dr Grace, who compared the Native policy of the late and present Ministry, saying that measures of aggression appeared to him to have characterised our policy for many years, and that the present Ministry was the first to adopt measures of conciliation rather than of repression. The dread of extermination, or of ultimate designs in that direction, had seized on the Natives like a night-; mare, and they seemed to hail the: appointment of Mr M'Lean to office in; the most joyous manner. The appointment of Mr M'Lean had effected ah infinity of good in the Colony, and the cheering results of his persona! influence, both with Natives and Europeans, had not yet borne ia tithe of their fruit. The hon. member then defended the active operations of the present Government on the ground that if we had quietly passed over the massacres of our friendly allies, we should have been not only open to a charge of ingratitude, but to accusations of having acted with the greatest impolicy, because we might thus easily have shaken the loyalty; of tribes whose friendship was of great importance" to us. The hon. member then referred to the San Francisco mail service, regretting that Ministers did not succeed in having the port of call further soutb, because the divergence of postal facilities to the North or South was likely to foster that great bane to the future of New Zealand, the possibility of separation. Nevertheless, in spite of that great fault, he felt that enterprise had been shown by the Government, and he hoped it, might be in the power of the Government to perfect that enterprise. He considered that the clause referring to immigration was the important one in his Excellency's speech, -taking rank before the Native difficulty, and even before our financial condition of indebtedness, as being the best remedy for that condition: The hon. gentleman concluded as follows : — " The truth is that, like hope in Pandora's box, the future is the only thing open to us in this island, and therefore I have dwelt upon his Excellency's speech at some length, as it appeared to me to be. a, harbinger of happier days." * v ThVHbh. Mr Waterhouse, in seconding the motion, spoke at some length in praise of Mr M'Lean's management of Native affairs, attributing the present peaceful prospects |p ; ..that gentleman's exertions In reference to the action of the Imperial Government towards the Colony, the hon. member characterised it as unnatural, and cold-blooded in the extreme. . To find a precedent, they must go back to tbe decline of the Roman Empire, when Rome refused to accede to the requests of its suffering colonists in Britain, and rdid:fqrp the > Britain of the 'North what England was now doing for the Britain of the South, by withdrawing its troops, Having the feelings which, he entertained in reference to the coriducfc of the mother country to the Colony, he should on general grounds be glad to see the intercourse with the other great member of the Anglo-Saxon" fatriily drawn closer than it now was, believing that if the mother country abnegated its position, and refused to place itself at the head of tbe Anglo-Saxon race, that honorable' place would devolve upon her offspring iri America. It was consequently with great pleasure that he saw our intercourse with that country was likely to be drawn closer, through the opening up of steam communication with the principal port of the United States on the Pacific coast. Amongst other .advantages, of this intercourse^* & -treaty might be entered into, which would obviate the duty on wool df 6dper lb. In the matter of immigration the .hon. member thought we might promote 'that*; work by assisting priyatb j

individuals to bring out labor to a greater extent than is now the case. At the present time contracts made in the mother country with intending emigrants were made for a short time, but he thought many persons, such as farmers, would often be induced to bring out boys and girls of 12 and 14 years of age, at their own expense, were there some legislation in the Colony to give them something like the control which the parent has over his child. He hoped that the measure to readjust the representation of the Colony would provide that the public nomination of candidates, which had been abandoned in the other colonies, would be done away with here, and tbat they would be nominated in writing, as being less calculated to excite the passions of electors. Every person who had witnessed the operation of the ballot in the other colonies, must be an advocate for its . introduction here. A cable uniting Australia and New Zealand was desirable ; but^ as poor Richard said, in Franklin's Almanac, " We may find that we have paid too dear for our whistle." He presumed the change in the law relating ' to registration and transfer of propertywould be based on Torrens's Act, which he could not but regard as one of the most beneficial pieces of legislation ever passed. The only omission in the speech which he regretted was that there was no shadowing forth of any general scheme of : education. — Perhaps under the present - circumstances of the Colony they could not expect the Government to deal Vith the subject forthwith, but he hoped that education would be not a matter of local but of general interest. The Hon. Mr O'Neill thought the Government should not borrow any more ; money, because the load of debt was already too heavy. Instead of going to the English market, the genius of the Government should be applied to introduce population out of current revenue, and for that purpose the proper funds to be employed were the territorial revenues of the country. - If they were to be an united . Colony,, unquestionably the territorial revenues of the Colony should not be confined to the use merely of one section of the community. It seemed to be most absurd, when there was no law of the. Imperial Pa»li»mon*-or--t , ho--€Joneiar _ 35« semblv, that the Ministry of the day should be too timid to lay hold of the great central fund to increase the prosperity of the Colony. The hon. member then defended the present arrangement of the Sari Francisco mail service. He said, that if any attempt was made to disturb it, he believed that separation would follow. He thought nothing would be so good for New Zealand as. separation, because there was-so well-defined a line of demarcation between the -two islands, that he thought there should be two Governments. He thought it was the duty of the Government to , bring down a great scheme for primary education in, the colony, believing it should not have been left sa long to the.Provincial *P:'overnments. ; He: thought ahm that the police should be under the control of the i Gerieral Government. He had risen to protest against any further borrowing of money, because the unfortunate division of the coloriy situated to the North, would have to repay twofifths, of the amount, while the settlers of the other division enjoyed a large revenue, and enjoyed besides, about 4,000,000 t)f money without possessing any right to it — money which should have been employed in constructing roads and bridges throughout the country. If the General Government took iihat revenue, and introduced population and constructed public works, New Zealand would soon be a great and happy country. The Hon. Colonel Kenny deprecated a preiriature discussion 'of the various questions alluded to in the speech. When they were more directly brought forward, hon. members should then fully and carefully consider them. The Hon. Mr Gisborne congratulated the Council on the accession of ability which it had acquired in the presence of the proposer and seconder ofthe motion. There was orie remarkiriade by Mr O'Neill, in which he was under a false impression. He said, in-regard to the- apportionment of the land fund, that there was no law on the subject ; but ever since 1858 there had been a law. Thore was the Land Revenue Apportionment Act, which pro. vided that the land revenue, after certain general charges had been satisfied, should be handed over to the = Provinces for appropriation. That Act was repealed by the Public Revenues Act of 1867, which said:— "The Colonial Treasurer shall pay out ofthe Land Fund arising within each Province such salaries to the Receivers of Land Revenue within Such Province as the Governor in Council shall direct and shall except as hereinafter otherwise provided from time to time but not later than thirty days after the end of each month pay over to the Provincial Account of each Province the gross remainder of the sums which shall during each month have arisen within such Province." Thus clearly the Legislature had prescribed a law, whether wisely or not was a matter for discussion, but the Ministry had no discretion in the matter. The hon. gentleman then referred at some length to the various _„ matters alluded to in the speech. After some remarks from Mr._ O'Neill and the mover, the motion was agreed to. Several committees were then appointed. The Hon. Mr Sewell in moving the second reading of the Punishment for High Treason Bill, said that its object was to alter the form of sentence in the cases of conviction for high treason. . By the present law, where persons were convicted of this crime, the sentence which the Court was obliged to award was: as follows : — " That such person should be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution and be there hanged by the neck until such person should be dead and that afterwards the head should be I severed from the body of such person and

the body divided into four quarters." He might mention that this form of sentence, barbarous as it seemed noW, existed since the year 1814, up to which time the sentence was passed in a still more bar*, barous form. It was well that this remnant of barbarity should be removed from the Statute Book. He Asked the Council to pass a Bill substituting" the ordinary mode of punishment adjudged in capital offences. The Bill was then read a second tinte, considered in Committee, reported to the House without amendments, read a third time, and passed. The Council thereafter adjourned. . ■ ■■■*. i -mm^----