PARLIAMENTARY.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 70, 17 August 1878, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY.

OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Wellington, August 13. • *, On the adjourned debate on the toral Bill being resumed the Premier w denied making promises in regard of manhood suffrage as asserted by the member for Geraldine. His remarks made at Timaru referred to municipal elections only. It would be unwise to introduce manhood suffrage, pure and simple, with- . out some wholesome check. He asked the House not to shut their eyes to the fact that there were 70,000 male adults in the colony who had no vote, and to errant suffrage to so enormous a number of men must be considered a great thing. A great point in the Bill was the residential qualification. It was well that strangers coming to the colony should by residence have time to acquire some knowledge of the colony and its politics before being allowed to vote. He appealed to the House to assist him and his colleagues in carrying out the great, and good work they had in hand. Dr Wallis thought Government.should have gone fhe full length of manhood suffrage while they were about it. The progress of society must sooner or later produce universal suffrage. Taxation and representation should go hand in hand. Everyone who paid taxes and lived in the colony should have a vote. Unrepresented interests were always overlooked and neglected. After speaking on Maori representation the lion, gentleman proceeded to the defence of Hare’s proportional system as the best system that could be adopted. Mr Gisborne agreeil with manhood suffrage, but he also believed in property being to a certain extent represented. He could hardly think that granting the franchise to women was a serious proposition. He was opposed to Hare’s system Mr Saunders agreed with neither the Bill itself nor with the objections against it. Did- not approve of the ballot. He *■ hoped that a reasonable li i it would be put upon plurality of voting, and thought . that it would be a mistake to give votes to married women. The residential qualification should be extended to all classes. He approved of closing public houses on election days.

Dr Hodgkinson approved of the Bill generally bid opposed women’s franchise.

Mr Bowen considered that the Government proposals in the main were fair and reasonable. He admired the residential clause and the plurality of votes. At the present time not more than two-thirds of the electors were on the roll, and so it would be in the future. As to woman’s suffrage, he contended that under the present system woman was fully represented, and by family ties exercised a great deal of political influence, and that the class of women who would come into ' the House would not he those who would he accepted by the women of the country as their representatives. Mr Sutton thought the Bill dealt with a question which was noi of burning importance, and predicted that were franchise lowered as proposed, it would be productive of the evil results which had followed a similar condition of things in Victoria. Instead of political power being thrown into the hands of the bu'k of the people it would be placed in the hands of the Large employers of labor. He denied that t!ic lower classes were the most liberal. The true libera's were to be found in the middle classes.

Mr Woolcock wanted to know why the Government had not introduced a measure which would give to the voice of every man in the country an echo in the House. The Bill was not sufficiently in - unison with the democratic tendencies of thought in the colony. The debate was adjourned on the motion of Mr Reeves.

Angust 14. Mr Fox gave notice to ask if the Government had received any communication from Lord Beaconsfielc. regarding the settlement of the Eastern question. In reply to Mr Seaton, Mr Macandrew said that Road Boards and Municipalities will be supplied with the New Zealand ‘ Gazette ’ free of expense. In reply to Mr Rolleston, Mr Ballance said a report upon the present condition of the Lunatic Asylums of the colony was in course of preparation.

Mr Fox brought up the question of the distribution of Government advertisements. He was forced to give attention to the matter from the fact that one section of the Press accused the other of having been corrupted by receiving Government advertisements, in view of tendering support to the Government. If that was the case, it was a state of things which never existed before. Mr Stout defended the Government. Mr Fox was entirely wrong in his facts. Mr Joyce thought the advertisements ought to be given to every paper in the colony at a fixed low rate.

Mr Macandrew thought this would be too costly a plan. Mr Wakefield argued that it was not becoming in a Government to compel one set of papers to print their papers gratis. The last tiling they should study economy in was in advertisements. One lower tender for a large contract would save money enough to cover a great deal of advertising. Mr Gisborne bore testimony to the way a Minister was made miserable through Government advertising. Mr Barton hoped the Government would not support an Opposition Press. He wanted to see parties better defined, and those papers who supported the Government to get Government merits. The Press ought to be made to feel who was in and who was out. If ' was high time the Government drew a hold line of demarcation between the two sections of the Press.

Mr Turnbull suggested that as the question was really a difficult one, the House should settle the basis on which the system of advertising was to.be conducted .

Mr Thompson suggested that a Government 1 Gazelte ' containing their advertisements should be stuck up at all telegraph and post offices. Mr Whitaker, .in moving the second

, reading of the Parliamentary Rep-csenNa-tion Bill, said that at present tlmr • was •no law or system for regulating en ctoral districts. This had been a grievance for many years, and they were constant y ■seeing Bills introduced to remedy tins nr that defect in some particular district. According to the Constitution Act, the 'electoral districts should be represented in accordance, not with the population, But with the number of electors. He ■claimed for the Dili a quality of finality that would rid the House of a'l bother in ; future from electoral and representative >- questions, by relegating the matter to the constituencies. As to the qualification part of the Bill, it granted the fullest franchise that could be observed. If there were any dangers to be appreliended from the extension of the franchise, why did nothing of the kind occur at Home when, after the Reform Bill of 1867 and 1868, the number of electors trebled in a few years ? Yet in 1874 they returned more Conservative candi'dates than Liberal. The same thing would take place here, and most probably the House would be improved. The object intended was to obtain a fair representation of constituencies. Pure democracy—that is, the government of the "... people by the people was impossible under present circumstances. The best approach to democratic Government is held to be to get the opinions of the sections of a community, and, having all these, then for the majority to decide. He wanted the opinion of minorities, (sometimes the best minds of the country) represented. It appeared to him that w r e were now governed by a majority of a majority, which might be a minority of the whole. The proper representation of minorities would be of the greatest advantage to the House. The Hon Member explained that according to bis Bill the el eel or would have only to write out in the booth, on the voting paper the names of those he desired to see elected, •and in the order he wished. All the leturning officers would have to do would be to collect the votes and send them all to the Registrar-General at Wellington, whose duty it would be to sort them and apportion the votes of each candidate, and with far less trouble and complication than was seen in a post-office every day. The hon member went on to argue that .the indifference sc constantly seen in New Zealand constituences arose from ihe fact that lots of people wou’d not vote when they knew that the majority was .against them, but who would vote if they were allowed to vote for a candidate in some other part of the colony. Mr Stout gave credit to Mr Whittaker for the pains he had taken in preparing Jiis Bill, but it was quite inapplicable to -the colony, and utterly unworkable as a system. Mr Barton spoke for two hours against the Bill. It was an invidious measure, brought forward for an unworthy purpurpose. The system itse.f was bad, tending to exaggerate the difference between rich and poor. It gave the judges and returning offi-ers so much power that they could virtually control the House.

Mr Wakefield characterised the objections of the last speaker as most shadowy, and thought the whole speech reflected discredit on the speaker for uttering it, and on the House for listening to it. He would vote for the Government measure ■when the proper time arrived, in the hope that when in committee such amendments ■would be mad',' as would result in a satisfactory measure becoming the Jaw of the country. On the motion of Mr Joyce, the debate was adjourned till Wednesday next. Aug 15.

In reply to a motion made by Mr Woolcock, Mr Stout said Government could not deal with the question of payment of members this session.

On the motion of Mr Moss the House agreed to a sum being placed on the estimates to encourage production of wattleBark in the colony. In reply to a motion made by Mr Eolleston, Sir George Grey said that the Government would see that a sum of money should be placed on the Supplementary Estimates for the purpose of establishing an asylum for the deaf and dumb in the colon}'. Members variously estimated the numbers of these unfortunates at from fifty to one hundred. On the second reading of the Gold Duty Abolition Bill it was, after a considerable discussion, thrown out by 35 to 34.

The adjourned debate on the removal of the electoral disabilities of women was continued.

Mr Feld wick moved the previous question.

The Speaker then put to the House,

“ Tne question is that the question he now put,” the result being—Noes, 44 ; ayes, 8. The debate was thus stopped, and the question shelved.