PARLIAMENTARY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10301, 2 August 1911, Page 5

PARLIAMENTARY.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

By Telegraph — Press Association

WELLINGTON, Last Night. The Legislative Council met at 7.30 p.m. THE LEADERSHIP. The Hon. J. McGowan made a personal explanation as to his position of Acting-Leader of the Council. He had, he said, been asked by the Prime Minister and Acting-Prime Minister, to carry out the duties of Sir John Findlay, owing to the latter's absence, as well as he could. He had accepted the position, feeling it to be an honour, and was perfectly satisfied that he might get every assistance from the Council. (Hear, hear!) The Hon. Mr Jcnkinson considered i that the Hon. Mr McGowan's experience in the other Chamber .warranted his being placed in the position of Leader, arid ho congratulated the honourable gentleman on his appointment. The Hon. J. Rigg said that the standing orders were clear, that :;. message from the Governor could only be presented by a Minister of the Crown, or some person only appointed I by the Minister. The explanation j given by Mr McGowan was necessary, but it was not yet clear to him that a more formal communication ' should not have been received. ! The Hon. McGowan said that no J more formal communication was nee- I essary than he had made. [

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY. \ Tho. Hon. Mr Sinclair theii moved | the Address-in-Reply to the Govern- 1 or's Speech. . He dealt exclusively with Imperial questions, upon which he spoke for an hour and twenty minutes. Ho laid down as an'axiom that Imperial unity must necessarily bo preceded by preferential fiscal treatment within the Empire. He complained that although three previous. Conferences had passed resolutions in favour of preferential treatment within the Empire, the question had been entirely ignored at the recent Conference, for the reason that the Mother Country was not in a position to put it into effect. He commended Sir Joseph Ward's views, but said the day of their consummation was not -1 perial Council to be composed of Premiers, but men of wisdom, knowledge, and sound judgment on colonial affairp should be appointed, and their wtkild bo equivalent to a-verdict of an' inter-Imperial jury upon Imperial questions. - . The Hon. Seymour George seconded the motion. He remarked that any , debate on the Governor's Speech was a pure waste ©i time.,,, He missed.one. . thing from the Speech, and that was tho enunciation of a hold, forward policy. He would like to* have ' seen a bold policy brought down for com- j pleting the Main Trunk railway sys- I tem. It'was going on now, but was [ going on very He thought it I would be' wise to raise a loan to complete these lines at the earliest possible moment. An Hop. member: Twenty millions! Hon. Mr George: Even if it cost that, it would not matter. They' would all pay. He.would have them all constructed at once. Increased i population was also necessary. He pointed to the importance of the full T , est consideration being given to any [ legislation which may have an effect in i restricting the introduction df capi- ' tal.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The House met at 7.30. CHRISTCHURCH SEAS

Sir James Carroll gave notice to ask the Speaker on nest sitting day to issuo a writ for the Christchurch North bye-election. SEEDS CONTROL BILL. ' The Seeds Control Bill (Hon. T. Mackenzie), was read for a first time. ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

Mr W. T. Jennings moved the Ad-dress-in-Reply. He wished to refer to the honour conferred on Sir Arthur Guinness, who, by his unfailing courtesy, had won the admiration of everyone in the House. With regard to His Excellency's speech, the teat .butone claimed meat* ,of• ■ pressed the desire that 7: the 'session vwould be a-short one, so. allow., the general election to be proceeded with. riot like to see;Parlia- t "merit inatier of perpetual" mo'ernnxent in''" the Speech, this was a matter vdiich required a great deal of »vith regard to military training, there was a want in New Zealand bqys of the present day of discipline. He hoped •the young men of the future would oe proud to belong to the New> Zealand J Territorials. In connection with the settlement of the lands in the Dominion, he. said an. astonishing amount of settlement had, taken place in the Taumaruntfi district, and he claimed that it was a standing credit to the land settlement policy of the Liberal party. In the Taranaki - Maori Land District, 40,000 acres had been held back for climatic and other purposes, and 95,000 acres were being surveyed, arid would be opened for-selection *n'. September. There were only 823,000. acres of Maori lands left', mostly in : Taranaki. In regard to the operations qfiiie Maori Land he* said, that 31,000 acres in'the Taumarunui Maori Lands District -were ,f<> be opened on the 14th prox. One of the greatest dangers to he grappled with in the future was the limitation of areas of land. Mr Witty, who seconded the motion, wished to congratulate Sir Arthur Guinness upon receiving the honour of knighthood. He also wished to congratulate Sir James Carroll tipon the honour, being more significant, in a measure, as it was an honour conferred on the Maori race as well as on the acting-Premier. A Local Government Bill was, he said, badly needed, and would be needed for a* long time to come. With regard to the prospects of the farming community, he mentioned the fact that the grub in the South had made such ravages that feed would be scarce, and stock would be dying in thousands later in the season. He was not wholly in favour of the compulsory training Act passed last session. He was more inclined to encourage the training of cadeis in schools.; He wished to congratulate tlio Prime Minister on the work he had done in the Old Country. There were a number of people who were always telling the country that the Dominion was not prosperous, -„Thjs was not loyalty to tlieoduntry. The increase in New Zealand forthe yeac was .125,000, which compared very favourably with the two largest States of Australia. The pub-

lie debt had, ho admitted, increaed to a groat extent during the j;;st twenty years, but the question was rot how much was borrowed, but wv.ai was done with the borrowed moi;<;y. Forty-two millions of the public d bt had been spent on reproductive woi is. Mr W. F. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, said he wished to congratulate the Speaker on the honour he had received from the King. So :ar as the Speech from the Throne vas concerned, lie did not propose to discuss it at any length, because it vas not worthy of discussion. The present, state of affairs in New Zealand, rnd the present cost of living, did not .-:ay a great deal for the administration of the past twenty years. The inemoer for Taumarunui was wrong when ho quoted figures regarding laud. There were only 16,762,000 acres of freehold land in New Zealand, do controverted Mr Witty's siate*m nt that only one of Mr Hine's charges had been proved. Several charges were proved. With regard to valuations, ho had complaints from all 0.-er New Zealand of recessive valuations. The difficulty in connection with" valuation was that the higher a farmer improved his land the more he was ■ taxed. He would like to suggest that the more the land was improved the | less the owner should be taxed. A | lot of people were leaving the country because they could not get land. During the recess he travelled from one end of New Zealand to the other, and he could say there was enough Crown and Native land in New Zealand to keep the present population going for ten years. Mr Massey, ■continuing, said that deopite .the Actfeg-Pr~mr,er'» stefcero&nit of this amount of la.nd opened for closer settlement, the people wore loavirrg the country because tluey • wore. unabL? to get land. Regarding' ■tire Mo>kau transaction, he to have an inquiry. The Order-in-Coiuaic.i.l for the. land to 'be sold a* IGo .p&r iricro was contrary to the Vmitation clause in. the Native .Lend Act. Tine Jmind should' have heeni acquired 'by the Crown and settled in, the ordinary way. He oosnplaired that nothing was known, of .what was being done'by the IjlectoraJ Bou».damies. Commifescon., and he wanted to know the date _of the General ELset:on. He. considered am a-rrendmraiit was urgently mexxled in the- Jaw, providing for <tho complete independeaoe . cf the judicial bench. ~ , Mr Massey concluded hy unrasArvcdly withdrawing a .statem-Kit mad© by hion m the heart of debate- lif-tb fesr'oni which referred to vhe :cte Mr / Ta,ylor. The withdrawal w,as with applause. - - . .• ,; . The. Hon. G. .Fowld®, > .':o Allowed, hud ilii&-\\-as''p.] P 'a.:issd'at(the wttlidraiwal..nia.ia. by. Mr Massey. " He cim-. gratulated the Speaker upon- the honour conferred upon him. Refercv - ing to land matters'j he isiaid "there were 18,591,563 acres of rural lands ,a.nd\ 45,068 ©waerisof thesa lands. In addition, there were 3,000,000 acres of Maori lamds leased to European®, Maoris. (Left Sitting), 1