PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 207, 22 August 1908, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

I'TUDAY, AUGUST 21. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. By Telegraph.— Press Association. Wellington, Last Night, lho Hon. Mr. McCardle, at the suggestion of the Attorney-General, withdrew his motion urging that the Gov-1 orninent should take action re Joshua Jones' property at Mokau, as the said Mr. Jones would approach Parliament by petition. The Coroners Amendment Bill passed its second reading. The Attorney-Gen-eral intimated that in committee lie would move a new clause dispensing with the necessity of a- coroner viewing a body where a medical practitioner certified that deceased died from an infectious disease.

The Local Authorities' Indemnity Amendment Bill was passed, and the Council adjourned at 4.45 p.m. HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30 p.m. Ai discussion ensued on prisons, initiated on the presentation of the Pri-

sons Report, Mr. Laurenson declaring that the prison system ought to be reformed in the direction of making the treatment of prisoners reformatory rather than punitive. Mr. Poole thought the prisons should not be made so attractive as to keep a considerable class in them from choice. Great discrimination should be exercised in the class of men sent to treeplanting camps. Mr. llerries said at present dangerous criminals were sent to the camps. This should be stopped. I Mr. E. G. Allen was of opinion that it was unfair to warders to send subjects for medical treatment to prisons. I Mr. Wilford agreed with the last speaker. He said the classification of criminals by a criminal anthropologist was absolutely necessary. The present system of treating all classes of criminals alike was unsatisfactory and unscientific. Messrs. Barclay, Hogg, and Haiun

also spoke in the same sense. The Hon. ,1. McGowan, in reply, said classification was not reform. Scientific

treatment was a term of the meaning of which he was not clear. He would introduce reform in the prison system when desirable reforms suggested themselves. , The Local Authorities' Indemnity Bill passed the committee stage and was rend n third time and passed. in Committee of Supply on the Estimates, Class 13, Police Department, total vote £173,4!)!), Mr. Wilford and Mr. Izard supported the view that the police should be paid much better for the important duties devolving upon them.

The Hon. Mr. McGowan said the references to pay were misleading. Married men received Is per day house allowance and free clothes, and single men free quarters. j The vote passed unaltered. On Class 14, Mines Department, total vote £38,050, Mr. E. G. Allen said the services of the director of the geological survey -were badly wanted in Otago. Others also asked for his services. Mr. McGowan said the application for Mr. Bell's sendees Would keep him going for six or seven years. Geological

survey must be prosecuted. He refused to allow Mr. Bell or any other Government geologist to be used as a mining expert by speculators. Gold mining was speculation, and should be carried on by .private enterprise. Mr. Hemes and Mr. 13. G. Allensaid the staff of the Geological Survey Department should be increased to meet the requirements of the industry. The vote passed unaltered, and the House adjourned at 5.30 p.m. The House resumed at 7.30 p.m. On Class 15, Department of Internal Affairs, total vote £120,001, some discussion took place regarding the printing of the electoral rolls, objection being taken to the new system of printing rolls in Wellington instead of in each electorate as formerly. Mr. J. Allen moved to reduce the vote by £1 to test the feeling of the

House. The Prime Minister said that everything possible had been done to mane the rolls perfect. Tf members wanted to go back to the old system of striking the names of non-voters oil' the roll, 'et them do so—(hear, hear)—but the new system had been adopted to get over many difliculiets. He quoted figures to show the reduction in the cost of preparing rolls. After a protracted discussion the melion was lost -by 33 to 18. On the item "Registrar-General's Department, £7780," Mr. Tanner said the quinquennial census was costly and useless, and that a decennial census would 1 be sufficient. (Left sitting.)