The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1885. AN AUCTIONEERS BILL

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2053, 28 July 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1885. AN AUCTIONEERS BILL

The straits to which soma members of Parliament are' driven to produce new legislation must be extraordinary, if we judge by the measures which are from time to time introduced, As a general rule these efforts aro either consigned to the waste paper basket, or they are allowed to hang as a doubtful ornament on the order paper till the end of the session approaches, when they are piled together, and what is generally termed the " slaughter of the innocents" takes place, The present sossion has brought forth quite an unusual crop of excrescenses upon ordinary legislation, and as the House of .'Representatives lias drifted into a state of unparalleled disorganisation, it is to be presumed that the slangier will be proportionately large, A.m'ong those that sire likely' to share this fate is a measure containing forty-two clauses and three schedules, which is fathered by Mi'Seddon, the honorable member for Kumara—a constituency which is as notorious for the quantity of gold which it produces,, as for the virulence with which its local elections are conducted, Whether auctioneers thrive or not, or whether, because, like the publican, they pay a heavy license fee, they, in the eye of some people, require to be watched and have their actions circumscribed, troubles ■the miners as little as the approaching eclipse of the sun, They work by candle light, and care little for things that are not of personal, interest to them. Mr Seddon has, however, undertaken to protect th,em from the auctioneer's hammer. He is apparently of opinion that the revenue of local bodies runs a risk of growing to undue proportions by the absence of all restrictions as to the number of licenses that may be taken out, and in what writers of a past ago used to call the " argument," he points out that when the fees became part and parcel

of the revenue of local bodies, at the time the provinces were abolished, the previously existing power of refusing licenses was virtually abolished-; and he proceeds to say that "In England licenses are issued tinder the control of the Commissioner of Excise, Throughout. the Australian' Colonies, excepting Tasmania and Western Australia, auctioneers' licenses are issued only under the certificate of the Magistrates in Petty Sessions; and this rule seems universal whenever the Executive Government does not issue the license, In Tasmania licenses are issued only on the certificate of the Colonial Secretary, after sanction obtained of the Government. lii Western Australia they are issued only by tlm Colonial Treasurer or' Treasury officers." Taking this as a basis, the Bill seeks to regulate the issue of auctioneers' licenses. One months notice is to be given of an application lor a license, and a Resident Magistrate, after examining'the application and hearing evidence, may either grant or refuse it, If his dicision is favorable, then he shall issue a certificate authorising the local authorities of the district to grant a license, Licenses are to be issued in districts' where the applicant conducts his business, but shall be applicable to the whole colony. Substitutes are to bo allowed.in case of the illness of the holder, Auctioneers are to render account-, sales within seven days, under a penalty not exceeding £2O, An •iuctioneer committing a fraud shall be liable to a term of imprisonment, with hard labor, not exceeding two years, a similar punishment being provided for altering or in any way tampering with a license. There are one or two provisions among the above that commend themselves but not one of them is equal to the repeal clause, which abolishes fourteen existing Acts. For our own part we do not see why auctioneers licenses should be limited any more than those of pedlars. If the principle were accoptod, it would soon be extended, and we might in the end have local option elections, not only with regard to publicans, but also auctioneers and hawkers. Ultimately we should perhaps he required to say whether anotehr grocery is required or not, Mr Seddos profes-es to bean advanced Liberal; but in the present instance lie only furnishes auother illustration that Liberalism in New Zealand is a mere sham, by proposing legislature that leads in the opposite direction,