LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1254, 18 October 1884, Page 3

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

GENERAL AS&EMBLY

The Council met at 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, The New Zealand Shipping Company Bill was read a third time and passed. A number of Bills were read a second time. The Gold Duties Abolition Bill was ordered to be read a second time in Bix months.

The Employment of Females Bill was further considered in Committee. Mr Olliver proposed a new clause—“ No person shall employ any female, young person or child in any factory at any time between the hours of six in the evening and eight in the morning, or for more than eight hours in any one day.” Dr Pollen moved to report progres. Progress was reported, and the Council adjourned at 4.55 p.m. The Legislative Council met at 51.30 p.m. on Thursday. Mr Nurse rose to give notice to ask the Government a question, the terms of which he did not state, and the Hon. the Colonial Secretary immediately called attention to the presence of strangers, who, including the reporters, were consequently ordered to retire, the doors not being unlocked till ten minutes past 3, when the Council was found to be in Committee on the Perpetual Estates and Agency Company of New Zealand Bill. This Bill was eventually reported with amendments. Several Bills were afterwards dealt with. HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES. In the House on Wednesday, Sir George Grey gave notice be would introduce a Bill to amend the Printing and Newspaper Regulation Act. Replying to Sir George Grey, the Kon. Mr Tole said the case of Fanny Knight, of New Plymouth, who alleges she was cruelly assaulted, will he inquired into. Replying to Mr Steward, the Hon. Mr Richardson said the suitability of broadleaf for railway sleepers was well known, but the timber was so scarce that little use could be made of it for the purpose mentioned.

Replying to Mr Steward, the Hon. Mr Stout said that an additional sum of | £250 would be placed on the Estimates for prizes at the annual Volunteer shooting competions; bat they could not arrange that one-half of the annual vote be allocated to Volunteers in each Island. Replying to Mr- Pyke, the Hon. Mr Stout said the Government would, as far as prudent, give effect to the recommendation of the Gaol Committee re the periodical removal of police. , In reply to Mr Pyke, the Hon. Mr Stout said some arrangements would be made whereby on dark nights the street lamps would be kept alight until after the rising of Parliament. On the motion for going into Committee on the Bast and West Coast (Middle Island) and Nelson Railway, Mrßolleston objected to the Bill. After reiterating the objections already stated to the Bill, he marie an attack upon the Treasurer. He (the Troasurer) had taken advantage of his position years ago to get himself made Agent-General, and then at a critical moment in the colony's history he had preferred a large claim for duties discharged at the time he was engaged as Agent-General. That was not the class of man they could trust implicitly to at a . time like this. Sir Julius Vogel had, after lengthened absence from the colony, again made his appearance in their midst. The first thing he tells them is that they have been losing ground in his absence, bat now that he had returned among them they were to resume their former activity, and the colony was henceforth to progress not by slow and sure degrees, but by leaps and bounds. In this they could discern the old recklessness to which they owed their difficulties, and he hoped they would pause before they again gave themselves over to the influence of that same spirit. Messrs Reese, Seddon, Garrick, and Hurathouse supported the Bill, and Messrs Hatch, Downie Stewart, and Tergus opposed it. Sir George Grey recognised the importance of the work being carried out. The Government of which he was the head proposed to do the work, aDd to sell the adjacent land as the work went on. The proposal now was to give the land to a company. The result of that would be that when the railway was finished the land would be worth at least double what it was at the time the land was so given. In that way the proposed company would get a gift of this acquired value. There were members in the House who were by this measure forced into Opposition. The Premier all along stood up in support of the doctrine that the land belonged to the people, and such being the case, it was the Ministers themselves who forced them to take up arms in opposition. The land was to be given up to a foreign country. It would be sold in a fereign market, aDd to buyers who cared for nothing but the best price that could be realised. They . had been told the land was worthless. He believed it would turn out to be land of considerabla worth, and that would be found out when the forest was cleared.

I Thi* was an act against their rights and ! liberties as a people. It was their duty to go • into the money market themselves, and I borrow ihe money required construct ! this line, and by 'that, means conserve the j land for themselves and for their children. He denounced the District Railways Leasing and Purchasing: Bill, adding that he was bound to do so although he was going against men whom he desired to support. He called upon them to support him in resisting the measure now before the House. If passed, he hoped the population would join in a demand that the Crown should withhold its consent thereto. Mr Stout replied, and urged that they were unnecessarily prolonging the session. He was still imbued with the land nationalisation principles, and he hoped he would see that idea carried out, but it wan a question of time. He held that there was nothing alarming in the Bill, and nothing that anyone who desired to see the line constructed would object to. The motion for committal was put and carried on the voices. In the House on Thursday, Replying to Mr G. F. Richardson, the Hon. Mr Ballance said a sum would be placed on the Estimates to meet the case of those separated from their families, and who, by the order of the late Government, in March last, were unexpectedly deprived of their right to nominate their wives and children left behind in the Old Country. Replying to Mr Smith, the Hon. Mr Stout said when a School of Agriculture came to be established in the North Island, as was the case in the South, the manufacture of cheese and butter could be provided for with the view of fostering that industry. Sir George Grey introduced the Printers and Newspapers Registration Act 1868 Amendment. On the motion for the first reading he explained that under existing circumstances anyone publishing a book or paper to which the printer's name and address had not been attached, was, along with the printer himself, liable to heavy penalties. Ihe Bill was intended to remedy that hardship. He thought it was a measure Government ought very properly to take over. Mr Macandrew remarked that he hoped the Bill would make the provision for the writer's name to be appended to newspaper The Hon. Mr Stout added as a further suggestion that a similar provision should he made as to the names of Parliamentary newspaper correspondents. > He promised Government would assist in pushing the Bill throug't. The Coroners Abolition Bill was read a second time. The School Committees Bill passed through Committee despite much opposition from Messrs Rolleston, Stout, Montgomery and others. The House rose at 12.55 a.m.