COUNCIL DOINGS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 21, 25 May 1867, Page 2

COUNCIL DOINGS.

(By a Visitor to the Gallery.)

The miserable reports of the proceedings of the sayings and doings of the Council furnished by the Wellington press will explain an error in a late number of the Mercurt respecting the V ohmtecr Land Bill, brought forward by one of your members. It passed its second reading last Thursday with an animated debate. in which Mr. Bunny made a telling speech, but the speech of Mr. J. Johnston against the Bill was powerful, but it was capitally met by Mr. Renall in reply, and his definition of a volunteer in answer to th« expressed opinion of the member for Karon, who said he did not consider we had a volunteer in the Province, but only men who made

up volunteer corps to escape the militia, was complete, and his further allusions to the state of the Wairarapa, and the fact that when the different corps were formed there was not a militiaman liable to serve, as no roll in the valley had been made up, clearly showed that Mr. Johnston was in error, and' after some further remarks, in which he described the different corps in the valley with some lively allusions to Captain Boys, and the inscription on the Greytown Banner, of the single word “ ready” the debate closed in which most all the members took a part. The Bill was read a second time without a division, the opposition being confined to but few members, the Government feeling the absolute necessity of keeping faith with the volunteers now the troops are leaving the Colony, and only refused themselves to take up the matter ou financial grounds. You will also see that the same member has charge of the New Licensing Bill, which it is highly desiralle should be made complete this session. This bill will soon have a history ittatched to it, it was introduced last session by Mr. Brandon, and referred to a Select Committee, and was postponed at the close till this cession, when it made its appearance under the care of the Provincial Solicitor, Mr. Borlase, but had made but little progress, when the member for the Hutt, Mr. Ludlam, carried an amendment which shattered all the frame work of the bill, constituting quarterly meetings instead of one annual meeting as now in force in the Province except in the City of Wellington. The Provincial Solicitor holding up the Bill between his fingers in the House so that its forlorn condition should he plainly seen, announced his intention to abandon it as a forlorn hope, and here its existence must have terminated, had not one of your members who had been on the Committee volunteered to rcsnsticate it, and under his care it goon again made its appearance in Committee. Now, Mr. Editor, just fancy a private member undertaking so difficult a measure, containing no less than 43 clauses, the most of them requiring reconstruction, and then taking his itand by the Chairman of Committees with most of the members, copy in hand (with two or three laudable exceptions) trying all their skill at finding a weak point, to send a shot through it. The Provincial Solicitor firing a red hot one whenever he got a chance. This game went on for some two hours, your member explaining away the multitude of objections raised, and gradually gaining the confidence of the House that he might prove himself equal to his difficult task. The d!Jth clause was reached, and the Committee reported progress, but I must refrain from venturing an opinion as to what the Bill now is for amendments were put into most of the clauses, others struck out, altered, and must consequently be readjusted, so when the Committee have got through its labors it will appear in an entire new suit. Saturday morning, May 18. Last evening the House was in Committee on the estimates, and an animated discussion took place, the most notable point yet being a falling off in the territorial revenue of some thirteen thousand pounds, as estimated for the ensuing year. lam afraid we must get a repetition of this more or less till the land revenue will cease to be of much importance in our estimates. A great change seemed to have come over the Committee on the Licensing Bill last evening. The often repeated appeal of j'our member Mr. Renall, in charge of the Bill, to help in its reconstruction, and make it as perfect as they could, seemed to be the order of the day, and the members set quietly to their work taking it clause by clause, iu a most business-like way. This was as it should be. and it appeared to me that the measure will be thus got through, and surely the repeal of the ten or twelve Acts under which the present system is administered, and their consolidation into one law that may be understood, must prove an immense advantage. Leaving the House in Committee on the Bill, I afterwards understood that all the clauses were got through, and that a new clause, brought forward for the first time, giving the inhabitants of a district or a majority of them the power to restrain the Bench of Magistrates from introducing into their districts public house. The clause, from what information I could gain, in the shape brought forward by the member for Karori, Mr. Reading, I understand will require some alteration to make it workable, which Mr. Renall promised to make, and from the way in which it was received, I make no doubt the Council will adopt. How many fathers and mothers will rejoice at this when they find it is in their power for the first time to keep the pollution of a grog shop from their door. To my mind if the Council do this it will be worth all the trouble bestowed, and the outlying districts will remember with gratitude the men by whose efforts this great boon was conferred.