PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 189, 21 September 1871, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

(From the " Daily Times" Telegrams.)

"Wellington, September 12 th. The Vaccination Bill has been passed. The Port Chalmers Railway Bill has been returned from the Legislative Council with amendments.

A debate took place on the sesoncl reading of the Highway Boards Empowering Bill. Mr. Hall and several other members regretted that the Bill did not go far enough. It should be a general measure, constituting Eoad Boards throughout the colony. Several members alluded regretfully to Mr. Stafford's Road Board Bill. The present measure was generally approved of as being a step in the right direction, substituting Local for Provincial Government.

The married women's Property Bill was read a second time.

September 13th. Mr. Yogel concluded his Financial Statement without making a motion.

Mr. Stafford asked how the debate was to be taken.

Mr. Yogel said he had forgotten to prepai'e the usual resolution. Mr. Staffoid said it was a perfect farce to pretend that such a well known practice had been forgotten.

Mr. Yogel then moved a formal vote of £2500 for public domains ; and the debate was then adjourned to Tuesday next.

Mr." Hall asked from when the announced changes with regard to the Provincial finances would date.

Mr. Yogel replied that all his proposals dated from- 30th June last.

The Highway Boards Empowering Bill was read a second time.

To-day, Mr. G. M'Lean drew attention to the fact that Ihe papers on the table in re Regina v. Barton did not include the telegrams between the At-torney-General and Mr. Haggitt.

Mr. Gisborne said they were confidential, but any that had been read in Court might be added.

Mr. Yogel announced that for the next four months permission had been given for Mr. "Webb's steamers to go from Auckland to Sydney, the contractors arranging for the carrying of the mails coastwise, and a deduction being made from the subsidy at the rate of £10,000 a year. The Government had written to all the Australian Governments, inviting them to use the line free of cost during the four months. At the expiration of that period the contractors would be prepared to carry out the contract in its integrity.

The Government intimated their intention to reduce the charges for money order telegrams. Mr. Bathgate brought in a Bill to enable the Corporation of D lined in to borrow money to acquire the existing water and gas works. The Bill was read a first time. ' Mr, Yogel explaine.l that the £50,000

alluded to hj Mi\ Oollins last week, Lad been drawn from the Controller with the full knowledge on the part of that, officer that the money was not going to be applied to the purposes for which it was ostensibly obtained. The Controller, however, required it to be so drawn in order to protect himself, and the Government assumed all responsibility in regard thereto. Mr. Yogel read a letter from Mr. Fitzgerald to show that \h.a.t gentleman had not been deceived.-

The House has ordered that Mr. Smythies be heard at the bar of the House on Wednesday next. Tt was also carried on a division by 38 votes to 1 8 that the Law Society have leave to be heard by Counsel. On the motion of Mr. Eeid, the Otago Land Bill was read a first time.

The Financial Statement was on the whole well received by the House though a good-deal of the cheering was evidently ironical. It is believed that the proposals of the Government were a good deal modified at the last moment. In the delivery of his statement, Mr. Yogel merely gave the gross totals of the tables attached to it, which are not yet published. The proposal to take the money for tko subsidy to Eoad Boards from tho loan, was not liked. The General feeling appears to be that if they are hona Jule,-<\nd if nothing is concealed, the pro posals regarding the Provinces are a step in the right direction, though not going far enough. Some uneasiness is felt regarding the allusion that immigration meant settling people in the country, as well as bringing them to it. It is thought that this may conceal sonic scheme for interferance with the waste lands. It is rumoured that Mr. Stafford will pi-obiibly table resolutions going further towards kha abolition of Provincialism, and containing defiinite proposals regarding the waste lands. Nothing, however, has been determined on.

The last portion of Mr. Vogel 's statement was evidently an appeal to Messrs Stafford and Hall to join the Ministry. He appealed earnestly to all parties to sink personal animosities, and to unite in carrying out a great policy, lie expressed his willingness to accept any fair party challenge, but refused to elevate personal feelings or animosities to the dignity of p.irty differences.

September 14th. , A long debate took place last night on Mr. O'Neill's motion to reduce the gold duty to Is an ounce.

Mr. Shepherd moved an amendment to reduce it 6d per annum until it was extinguished.

Mr. Steward moved an amendment to reduce it 3d per annum until it reached Is.

.The Government opposed any reduction under the present financial situation of the colony, but stated. their intention oi* seem;*- tho money expeuded locally, and for the purpose for which it was raised.

Messrs. Harrison, Curtis, Reynolds, and Murray opposed a reduction, and Messrs. Haughton, Bunny, Swanson, Collins, Mervyn, and Calder supported it.

Mr. Shepherd's amendment was lost on a division by 43 to 21, and Mr. Steward's was negatived on the voices. Mr. Macandrew then moved that the duty be reduced to 2s an ounce. This was lost by 43 to 20, and the original motion was then' negatived by 52 to

In the Legislative Council, the Hon. Colonel Brett, in moving for the appointment of a committee on the defences of the Colony, made a violent attack on the Volunteers, whom he described as being in an inefficient and disgraceful state ; 2,000 regulars could march from end to end of the Colony. The Volunteers ought to be disbanded.

The Hon. Messrs. Paterson, Holmes, and others warmly defended the Volunteers.

In the Houseto-day, Mr. Macandrew f proposed his resolutions. They proposed, he said, the greatest organic and constitutional changes yet suggested, and would more properly have come from the Government, as without its concurrence no practical effect could follow. Failing the Government, however, no one had a better right to suggest such changes than himself, as one of the three original members of the House ; and from the position he occupied, and the part he took in introducing the present constitution, he now proposed these changes. He did nob thiuk the North Island was ripe for such a change, and as he did not know its exact requirements, ho proposed to confine the operation of the measure to the Middle Island. At the present time there were 138 persons employed in the legislative and executive offices, at a cost of £22,3 M lie proposed to replace these by 46 persons, and was convinced that the duties, legislative and executive,' of the Middle Island, could under his scheme be performed for between £3000 and £4000. A large saving would also be effected by having ouly one, instead of five heads of legislative departments. He would, with the money so saved, construct a system of railway and wafer communication from Lake Wakatip to Cobden, it the Nelson Province — a distance of 300 miles — of which 55 would be water communication, The money saved would, represent interest at five per cent., on nearly half a million of money. Surely it was better to have 300 miles of railway and water coin-

munieatioa than five legislatures, or talking shops. This line could be made with half a million of money. His proposals would promote the public intorests and the better government of the Middle Island, as well as effect a pecuniary saving. It waa absurd to have different sets of laws, from land acts to dog taxes. He was now prepared to deny that in the course of years, when the waste lands had been sold, the population doubled, and the country system established, one legislature at Wellington, for the whole

Colony, might answer. No county system, however, coming from the present Assembly, would ever be satisfactory ; but it would be the first duty of the Middle Island Council to devise a system of County Councils, which would eventfully supersede the Provincial Councils altogether. Otago had already passed a measure for the establishment of unpaid County Councils. He would give the management and construction of railways to the Provincial Council, as a more economical and satisfactory plan than their being done by the Colony, and the Councils should also determine where and when they should be constructed. His resolutions would grant virtual insular separations without imparing the unity of the Colony. The powers of the Council would also be very clearly defined ; theiv would be no more ultra vires Acts. A uniform land law would be an immense advantage. Our present land laws were inexplicable to ourselves, and much more so to strangers. The giviug up of the waste lands by the Imperial Government had been a great mistake. He believed in Earl Eussell's axiom that colonial lands were the patrimony of the poor man at homo, and the Imperial Government would probably have administered them better. The colony having got them made a great mistake in not dividing them, as some of the provinces did, among tho settlers then in it. The first P-rovincil Council should meet at Christchurcb, and should afterwards be a peripatetic body, meeting alternately at all the capitals of the present provinces, so as to give all the members full local knowledge of the country. He would aslc leave to withdraw I'esolution No. 11, as he thought such a change as it suggested would naturally follow in time. The great evil of the Colony was over-governed, and his resolutions were a step towards reducing that. He was now bound to detail his scheme, but wished to soe its principle established. Ho had not touted for support, but if the resolutions commended themselves to the support of the Middle Island members, ho hoped tho North Island members, who were not interferred with, would not withhold their support. He was sacrificing the cherished sentiment of years in respect to Otago's nationality, and also sacrificing his own persomil ambition in bringiug forward . these proposals ; but no sentiment should stand in the way of the public good, and the savin:? of £22,000 in the government. No man would sacrifice more than himself, as if his resolutions were. carried he would lose his present high and honourable, though sometimes despised, position as Superintendent of a large and important part of the colony.

Mr. Haughton seconded the resolutions.

Mr. Fox said that Mi-. Maeandrew, from In's previous career and his position, was fully justified in blunging forward these proposals j but the Government did not see their way to support them, as they were evidently antagonist to the policy enunciated in the Treasurer's Financial Statement, though the same ultimate end might be aimed at. He thought the amount of the legislative and executive expenses of the Middle Island, as stated, were very small considering the extent of the territory, revenue, and interests involved. The amalgamation of the Provinces into one would probably not etfecb any vei-y large saving. The work would have to be done, and to be p lid for. Even the Road Boards, if they were given large powers, would require to be paid, or to have paid Chairmen and Secretaries. The expenditure of each ten mllions would afford increased security for borrowing further millions. The Government were not going to stop with the present ten miliions, and in the course of time the arterial works mentioned might be constructed. They would be done as soon under the Colonial as under a Provincial administration. The Colony was able to carry out such works more economically and promptly than smaller governing bodies. We should not escape the existing evils of government by rushing into new forms. Human nature would remain the samo, and influence the machinery and the Government. The scramble for public works would be as great or greater in the Provincial legislature than it was predicted it would be in the Assembly, and against which Government wished to take precautions. The smaller the body the greater the risk of a scramble. The powers of the Provincial Councils were now defined, and if any of their acts were ultra vlres,*it was because those bodies wilfully exceeded their powers, and then appealed to the Assembly to validate their acts. Mr. Macandrew attributed this evil to the existence of lawyers, but unless he proposed to hang all the lawyers in the Middle Island, the Provincial Council as proposed ■would be still obliged to take legal advice, He saw no prospect of the exis-

ten.ee of such harmony oi iUellu^^s would enable the Middle Island to agm to a uniform system of land laws. A peripatetic Legislature would not solve the difficulty of where the sealof go, vernment should be. (Air. Macandrew; I would leave it to the Conncil. They would probably fix on Cromwell.) The Government would oppose thea'esolutions" as impossible to be worked in wifch their own proposals of the present and last year.

M. Shepherd supported the principle of the resolution.

Taiaroa said that if the resolutions were carried he would propose a ssperate Government for the Maoris.

Mi % . M'GiHivary supported the abolition of the Provinces.

Mr, Hall admitted that over-govern-ment was great evil of the Colony, but the resolutions were not the remedy for it. They rather aggrivated this by a worse form of centralisation than the present. What the Colony wanted waa one Government, with local administrative bodies. The resolutions would make our system of Government more complicated than ever. We wanted that system simplified. It would not ba a wise course to sweep away Provincial institutions, as we could not s\veej> away local differences and requirements requiring local administration. He and, his party had for years been trying "in this direction, and he gladly welcomed his former oppoments on having cometo the same way of thinking, and was satisfied with the porgress the Government was making in the direction aimed at. He would not support the resolutions therefore. He criticised the details of the proposed scheme at some length. Mr. WakefieM and Mr. Kelly opposed the resolutions. Mr. Kolloston said tho resolutions did not meet his views, and were inopprotune. lie would lend himself to nothing that did not ensure the unity of the Colony. He had heard much in the Financial Statement releasing the views he had held for years, and he required time to consider that statement before he was able to discuss such resolutions as Mr. Macandrew's. If a full consideration of the Financial S.cheme fulfilled the hopes aroused by the hearing of it, he believed that this session the House might evolve some safe and wise changes.

Mr. Eeeves opposed the resolutions.

Mr. Bathgate supported the resolutions, as securing insular seperation without impairing the unity of the colony.

The debate was interrupted hj dinner. At the evening sitting, Mr. Fox made his speech in reply on tha Education debate. He would not accept Mr. Wakefield's amendment to make the Minister ofEdiioation .a non-political officer. They .would. adhere to their determination of maid tig tLe boundaries of the educational districts conterminous with those of the Provinces. They would propose to make the Education Boards consist of the Superintendent and Treasurer of each Province, and from five to twelve members elected by the School Cemmittees. They would leave it optional with each Boai'd either to impose fees for attendance or a capitation tax l on all children, whether attending school or not. They would adhere to tlic Aided Sclnools, reading tRe Bible, and conscience clauses. They "would leave the question'qf compulsory afcten-dauGe-tQ-ihs—Boards .to_clecide in each case. It was, not possible to make % property tax touch real property, so they would make the rate only a household one, at £1 per house. This would" yield £15,129, as against £57,622 now raised by various modes, exclusive of fees, in the various provinces. He did not say that the Government would not accept other amendments in Committep, but they wished the Bill to be passed in the shape, indicated if possible. It would not be made a ministerial measure, but if it emerged from Committee* - in a mutilated form, it would be for tha consideration of the Government whether it should be proceeded with or abandoned until public opinion was better formed,, and a really useful Bill commanded the support of a majority of the House.

The Bill was ordered to be committed on Friday week.

September 15 th

The debate on Mr. Macandrew's resolutions was resumed by Mr. Fitzherbert, who, in an able speech, criticised che proposals adversely, and declared them inopportune after the policy enunciated by the Government.

Mr. Hichardson (Christchurch) moved the adjournment of the debate to enable the House to learn what the Government really intended to do with the Province.

Mr. Steward's motion for the abolition of Grand Juries are rejected on a division by 34 to 24.

The Otago Special Settlements Bill was read a third time and passed.

Mr. Bathgate presented a petition from cabinet makers • and others^ in Dnnedin, praying for the impositioi?*of a duty on imported furniture. Mr. Eeynolds presented a petition from traders in Dunedin for a lien over work in favour of workmen and furnishers of materials. Both were received and remitted to the Public Petitions C(?aj» mittee,