Parliamentary.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 104, 19 September 1901, Page 3

Parliamentary.

The House on Tuesday commenced the consideration of the estimates for fcbe year., The vote £1135 for the House of Representatives was passed unaltered, though several members objected to increases of salaries to clerks, and objection -was taken to the office of Sergeanfc-at-Arms being allowed to exis".. The vote Qf £19,857 for thn Legislative Department was paßsed after discussion, as was that for £l(s-10 for the Colonial Secretary's Department. In discussing the latter vote, Mi? Pirani pointed out that tb.3 Premier, in his Financial Statemont, had said that this was not the time to increase salaries, and members, in opposing these increases, tfere only following the Premier's lead. He urged that the whole Oivil Service should be classified. Justice and fairness' would then be meted out. < Mr Millar said that .the average increase among the 800 salaries under £3OO was only £lb 10s, but the increases among the sixty-four high§r-paid officials amounted" to an average of £3B. Considerable debate too* place iri reference to private secretaries to Ministers. The vole on the estimates sfrotts an increase of £3.25, thirteen secrefca-io3 at £25 each. The Premier -said "that if justice were done to theSe officers, who were worked night and day, there ought to' be two Sets of secretaries. . The Tagus incident is to be returned to. Mr Allen is not satisfied with Saturday morning's, bout witlrthe Premier, and so he is moving for a return of all the correspondence in reference to the return of- the troopers to New Zealand, by tb,e troopship Tagus, both before and after their arrival in the colony; alto, for a return of i the illnessea and com plaintS among the troopers by that'ehip.'Farthermore, m A- ll 9 n Major in v JiB Wing dn tnafc the

cision on the question whether a Wellington member, in response to the general desire 'of the House, may read his Hansard proof, and certain words used in -such-speech can be ordered to be taken down. It does hot seem reasonable tha';. when an utterance, having beer j allowed as parliamentary pn one occasion, should be permitted to be challenged' as unparliamentary? when usecT for the purposes of reference. ' A jiyely debate. is anticipated when Mr Allen's motion comes up for consideration. There is some talk of members protesting against the grant of £2250 to His Excellency, for expenses incurred during the Duke of York's visit. It is contended that when" tae Governor's salary was raised last year it was understood that no further clairns would bo made by the Governor for such' purposes.