PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5151, 21 July 1885, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

[By "Telegbaph.] (feom oub own correspondent.)

Wellington, This day,

It will be remembered that the seoond reading of the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Bill was agreed to the other night upon the understanding that the amend" ments proposed by Sir Julius Vogel should be printed and placed in the hands of members before the Bill was committed. It has been found impossible to get these amendments prepared in time for taking the Bill into Committee to-night, and it therefore stands adjourned till Friday.

Mr Stout will probably make his Education Statement to night.

The opinion gains ground that the motion re the 'Frisco Mail* Service will not be agreed to. There is a good deal of lobbying going on against the proposal to continue the subsidy to the 'Frisco Service.

I believe it is a fact that Sir G. Grey will make another vigorous all-round attack on the Government shortly, and that the Vogel petition will take a prominent place in the speech.

It is rumored that an agreement has been come to between the Government and the Northern members, to the effect that in consideration of the latter giving Ministers a loyal and united support, Ministers will renew the San Francisco Mail contract, and abandon the Native Land disposition Bill after its second reading.

The first orders of the day for this afternoon's sitting of the House are as follows :—Hospital and Charitable Aid Bill, Stamp Act Amendment Bill, Succession Duties Amendment Bill, and the Counti's Act Amendment Billl—all to be committed. The Whitmore Enabling Bill is also to come on for its second reading, and these in themselves represent a considerable amount of bard work.

The Colonial Treasurer will to-day introduce the Customs Tariff Bill, described as a Bill to give effect to a resolu^ tion of the House of Representatives agreed to on the 9th July, 1885, imposing certain, customs duties.

The Life Assurance Policies . Act Amendment Bill, to be introduced 'to day by the Colonial Treasurer, has only one operative clause, which is: r—" Kvery assignment of a policy under the life Assurances Policies Act, 1884, hereafter made by way of ordinary transfer, and endorsed upon such policy in the form of and to the effect set out in the first-form of the first schedule to the said Act, and signed, or in the case of corporation, scaled by the transferor for and transferee, and shall be registered in a book to be provided by the. secretaTy for that purpose; and the date of such registration shall be inserted in the transfer, which shall also be signed by the secretary, and thereafter such assignment shall have the effect of vesting the policy in the assignee in the manner provided in the said Act; the 2nd form in the first schedule to the said Act, headed ' Form of assignment to purchaser, 1 is hereby repeated." 1 have just seen Mr Ballance, who denies that there is any truth in the rumor that the Government intends to drop the Native Lands Disposition^BUl after the second reading.