PARLIAMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 17, 20 September 1913, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

1 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10th. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, .» t; Wellington, September 10. The,, | Legislative Council sat at 2M. • 1 ■ A committee consisting of Messrs Belly ! Carncross, and Samuel, was appointed to draw up reasons why the Council could not agree with the excision by the House of Cause 4 of the Commercial . Bank of Australia Bill. The amendment of the Legislative Act, providing for the appointment >f a Deputy Clerk of Parliament, owing to the illness o*f Mr Stowe, was put through all its stages. The debate on the Legislative Counci Bill was resumed by Mr Anstey and Continued by Mr Jenkinson and Mr Luke. The Hon. W. C. Carncross said that as one of the Committee which drew up the report he knew it was impossibe to please everybody. He was surprised to see some members still favored a partly-nominative system. He felt confident that a partially-nominat-ed and partially-elected system could not give satisfaction. Let it either bo one or the other. He favored a purely nominated body, because in case of a political crisis there should ho one House entirely free from party politics. Tt was a great pity that in the past Governments had sent to the Council only members with their own particular political thoughts. Had it been otherwise the nominative system would never have been brought into disgrace. The Hon C. H. Mills considered that they would be unwise to undermine the grand old Constitution which had been honored for so many generations.

The Counicl rose at 9.30 p.m

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30. The Board of Agriculture Hill and the Legislative Amendment Bill were read a first time. The House went into Committee on the Estimates. Clause 10, Defence Department—£sos,ol7. The. Hon. J. Allen, replying to criticism, said that the object of the Department was to run camps as economically as possible, no matter whether stores for the South were purchased in,the South or vice vers,a. A clear saving of £SOO, a« comparedwith the. old system, had been made this year, owing solely to the business capacity of the officers in charge. The proposal to abolish (Trills between camps and lengthen camps was not practicable at present, though he favored such a course. The object of the permanent camp was to get the whole of the men together, so as to form one unit, but again that was not practicable. Tf they were to have any scheme at all they must pay For it. It was not reasonable to expect efficiency in two or three years. They must wait till the boy passed through the senior cadets to the Tervito’ ial? Regarding the cost, lie said that next

year they would nave a pro'll of £50,000 or £60,000 in addition to what was on the Estimates.

The general tone of the discussion was a warning to the Minister against, 'increasing the cost of the scheme. The Labor members protested against the prosecution. of boys. The item was passed at 8.-15, and the House put through the Loyal New Zealand Artillery item of £1,513,082. Class 13—Lands and Survey J>o‘ partment. Mr Massey, in reply to criticism, said that he was not in a position to give the cost of reading the land recently acquired for settlement, as the Estimates were at present being prepared. The reading of Crown lands was a big and difficult question, be-, cause settlement had, in many cases, gone ahead of reading. The legislation introduced this session, under which monies derived from settlement lands should be devoted to the cost of reading, should give valuable assistance, in addition to which he proposed to ask the House for £IOO,OOO. this session to assist reading. With regard to the northern lands, he proposed to have them classified, and to see whether some of these large nvamps in the North of Auckland •ould not be drained. Tt was true that the valuation of Crown lands opened for settlement had been two low, but n other cases it had been too high, uul something would have to be done ,n bring about more uniform values, hie had the matter in hand, and a 3111 would be introduced shortly, when ie could go more fully into the mat-

Replying to Mr Xgata, Mr Massey .aid that the difference In the cost of -urveying native lauds in Auckland ind Hawke’s Bay was due to the iinhered nature of the land in Auckand as against the open country in lawke’s Bay. ... .

Mr G. Witty drew the Prime Minister’s attention to the report of the Commissioner at Napier on the subnet of transfers. He pointed .outhat the transfers were 168, and the rea affected was 83,636 acres, the . alue of improvements £107,163, and .he goodwill paid was £265,818. This vas most valuable information. The Prime Minister commended the report. The reports of all the Comuissioners were, in his opinion, very ■•atisfactory.

The Land and Survey), vote passed it midnight and the House went on with the Agriculture and Commerce vote, of £185,441. : r,; j >'

On the subject of freights for cold storage to Vancouver Mr Massey said ;hat ho did not anticipate .that theywould be able to induce the Union _ dompaiiy to reduce the freight dur-‘ mg tlic term of, the present, contrac^ but it.'was satisfactory To know that' they were doing everything ,in their power to meet the growing require- v aients of the trade.

Sir J. Ward criticised the withdrawal of tlie Trade Commissioner from Canada. He said that there was a general feeding that it had been done for political reasons. It was most important that we should bo represented in'-Canada, for although it was not iiways irofesible-to -See thr result of th.e WOrk if wais undoubted that the .York was invaluable. In! an age of ictive competition it was imperative chat 'we should be on equal terms with >ther countries. We were going to

:;.ve a very large trade with 'Canada md should do everything in our pow>v to encourage it.

Discussing the quality of dairy proluce, Mr Robertson declared that milking machines in the hands of careers farmers were one of the greatest menaces to the industry. Ho also nut in a. strong plea for the better encouragement of the poultry industry.

After -a short discussion the vote passed, and the House rose at 1.40 a.rn.