Parliamentary.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 105, 21 September 1901, Page 3

Parliamentary.

In the House on Thursday Mr Atkinson presented a petition signed by 100 Chinese, urging the Government to legislate against the importation of and sale of opium. The Premier gave notice to introduce the Alcoholic Liquor Sale and Control Act Amendment Bill. The Public Petitions Committee brought down a report on a number of petitions praying that positions in the public schools of the colony may be open to the most suitable candidate regardless of sex, and that in all instances equal remuneration may be given for equal work. The finding of the committee was as follows:—(1) That the principle of equal pay for equal work is more nearly attained under existing, circumstances, but at the same time' the committee is of opinion that without increasing the cost of primary education the proposed scale of teachers’ salaries should be , so adjusted as to bring about a; nearer approximation of equal pay for equal work ; (2) That the ; separate schools for girls at present established be retained, and the principle extended at the discretion of the Education Boards, a minimum average attendance for: separate schools to be fixed by regulation or otherwise; (8) That the system of classification for issue of teachers’ certificates so long in operation, and which has worked so satisfactorily, bo retained; (4) That; the minimum salary of certificated teachers in charge of aided schools ; be fixed at not less than £7O a year. At 3 p.m. the House adjourned for an hour out of respect to the memory of the late President McKinley. Upon resuming, Ministers pro-: ceeded to answer the questions on the Order Paper. \ It was stated that orders had; been given that no other clerical; work was to be undertaken by the staff of the Defence Office until the ■ pay sheets of the troopers of the returned Contingents had been : disposed of; that the Government intended this session to introduce legislation to provide some simple system of local government for the Chatham Islands; that the Defence Department had On band some old Snider carbines which would be lent to school cadet corps if applied for but the Government could not go to the expense of issuing carbines to the principal public schools of the colony to encourage the formation of cadet corps- that a -vote would be placed On the Supplementary Estimates for acquiring relics and mementoes of the Maori race, and the Government also con-, sidered that legislation should be passed giving the Government the preemptive right over theSq relics.