PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4885, 5 September 1884, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

[By Telegraph.] (from our own correspondent.) Weelinoton, This day. The event of to-day will be the contest for the Chairmanship of Committees. As I intimated yesterday Mr Sbephard gave notice that he would propose that Major Steward be the Chairman. When the motion comes on to day, it will be met by an amendment proposing that Mr Hamlin, the old Chairman, be appointed, bat by whom it will be moved I cannot say. The opinion obtains that the election will ba a very close one, bat that it will result in favor of Mr Hamlin, although fcha latter did his candidature great harm by acting as chairman at a caucus of Major Atkinson's supporters. The other' side says that the Chairman of Committees, like the Speaker, should as much as possible dissever himself from party ties. Mr Cadman's name is» still mentiouod as the likely occupant of the vacant seat in the Cabinet.

Air Bradshaw has been appointed Chairman of the Natives Committee.

Mr Richardson will ask the Governraeat whether they will grant the royalty on timber to County Councils as County revenue, and Mr Smith to ask the Government if they would place a sum of money on the estimates to be used for the purpose of granting subsidies to public libraries, in order to settlejat once the calumny laid on the North Island by the South, that the former lives on the latter. Mr Buckland, of Auckland, in a somewhat peculiar mode, has given notice to move for a return of all Government money spent on the unemployed in the Provincial Districts of Auckland, flatfke's Bay, Tarahaki, Wellington, Nelson, Marlborougb, Westland, Canterbury, Otago, and Southland, within the last s<ven years, and the average rate of wages paid in each Provincial District. The recent smallpox scare has risen a notice of motion giveu by Taiaroa, mem* ber for the Southern Maori District— " That in the opinion of this House it is a

mater of extreme regret that th& small' pox has been brought to New Zealand by passengers from other colonies; (2) that the Maoris are in great dread of this epidemic, the more so because very few of them have been vaccinated. (3) that, in the opinion of this House, it is advisable that Government should take immediate steps to send medical men at once to the various native districts to vaccinate the Maoris."

Writing on the proposal to create an eighth paid Minister, the Times, in a leader this morning, protests against the proposal as entailing additional cost on the country, at a time when economy is necessary. The article is premature, as Ministers will propose such reductions in their own salaries as will more than cover the cost of an eighth Minister.