PARLIAMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3011, 7 October 1908, Page 6

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. (By Telegraph—Abridged from Press Association Report.) WELLINGTON, October 6. The Council met at 2.30 o'clock,, and immediately went into.Committee on the Old Age Pensions Amendment Bill. The proviso to elause 6. was deleted, and a new proviso inserted making it permissible for a magistrate to estimate the. income of an applicant for a pension will, probably earn in the following, year instead of as at present estimating the. income of the preceding year when considering the application for a pension. The Bill was reported without, further arnenament. Trie report uf the Joint Committee of both Houses on the Parliamentary buildings site was agreed to. The Council adjourned at 4.30 p.m„ HOUSE OF The House met at 2-30 o'clock. The Hon. Millar moved the: second reading of the Monopoly Prevention Amendment Bill, which extends the onerations of part I of the principal Act until the end of the year 1910, and also provides for the repeal of a clause inconsistent with this extension. The Railway Authorisation Bill, providing for the further construction of twelve miles, of the Midland railway, was read a second time. The House resumed at 7. JO o'clock. The Hon. R. McNab moved the second readuig of the Defence Amendment Bill, making certain amendments in the mode of electing officers, and providing that dismissals shall be by the Council of Defence instead of by the officer commanding the district, the latter only having power to disrate a volunteer. After some relerence by the Wellington members to an alleged case of wrongful dimissal, the Bill was read a second time. The Council signified their concurrence with the House in the adoption of the report of the Parliamentary Buildings Site Committee. The Land and Income Tax Bill was introduced by Governor's message and read a first itime. The reasons prepared by the Committee appointed this afternoon for disagreeing with the amendments made by the Council in the Arbitration Bill were adopted, and ordered to be transmitted to the Council. The House then went into Committee on various Bills dealt with during the afternoon sittirg. All Bills read a second time during the afternoon sitting were put through the final stages, with the exception of the Mental Hospitals Bill, in connection with which progress was reported. *On the motion for the third reading of the Education Act Amendment Bill, another debate on the promotion of teachers, free places, and free school-books took place. The Hon. G. Fowlds, in replying, said that the people of the Dominion were under a deep debt of gratitude to those members who had voted with him in resisting the blight of uniform schoolbooks getting into the Bill. The Bill was read a third time and passed.