PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 982, 25 July 1882, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Friday's Sitting,

The Committee which held an inquiry into Mr Pharazyn's case reported, recommending that they concurred with the opinions of the Judge and jury at the trial, that he voted twice by an honest mistake, and that he should be freed from all civil disabilities under which he is now laboring.

HOUSE OF REPKESENTATIVES, Mr Bracken resumed the debate on the Land Bill, He supported the Bill on the ground that it embodied principles upheld by the leading thinkers of the age. The nationalisation of the land was that principle. Air, water and land were not the property of any indiridual ; they were given for the use of all, and no man could claim them as his own. The State should never have parted with an acre of land, but, as it had, it was not too late to mend now. The State should regain possession of all land without doing any injustice to its present owners. The argument that Crown tenants would take all the good out of the land was fallacious. It would be to the interest of the State to do all it could for the tenants, and to the interest of the tenant to improve his farm and promote the welfare of the State. The rights of the industrious ought to be considered before the rights of tho few. Landowners did not comprise all the State ; merchants, tradesmen, and even sailors ought to be considerrd. Wherever the leasing system was introduced it had a good effect. In Liverpool and other British towns it had worked well, and the Dunedin Corporation had nut it in force advantageously. If tho

leasing system had been adopted an immense revenue would be annually pouring into the treasury, and Custom houses would urn longer be necessary. But there was no use in opening up land unless they had men to settle on it. The Government should endeavor to bring the right sort of men into the colony to settle on this land, and also to foster and. encourage industries. If this was done: there would be no need for the benevolont inquisition of Major Atkinson.

Mr Fish denounced the measure as one introduced for claptrap popularity. Messrs Fitzgerald, Holmes, Wynn Williams, Petrie, Pearson, Harris, O'Callaghan, Montgomery, Beetham, Swanson, and White supported the Bill, some of them •xpretsing their intention of making alterations in Committee, and after Mr Eolleston had replied the second reading was carried on the voices.