PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4773, 14 July 1894, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

" Trotting meetings may nnprovo tho [ breed of horses but tlioy do not unprovo tho breed of man."—Mr Montgomery. Mr Crowther "brought down the' House" last night by announcing that sonioof tho new J.P.'s wcro "bookies." If tho Gaming Bill becomes law in its present form no oho can put a pound on tho totalisator for a friend without risking threo months' imprisonment, Tho Premier is proposing an amendment to tho AuctionccrsAct Amendment '■ Bill permitting Auelioncorsto soil up till 9 p.m. for an additional feo of £5 per nnuum. MrHono Hcltc, Maori member, is introducing a Bill to give Maoris tho right to govern themselves " Tho Counties that have done the best work in tho Colony, linvo always been the larger couuties.'—Sir It. Stout. "In the new sot of J.P.'s recently added some of them aro 'bookies,'"— Mr Crowther in reply to Sir 11, Stout's assertion that the" bookies" would be sovcrcly dealt with with for infringements of his Gaming Bill. ' Mr Frascr asks that an expert shallbo appointed to instruct fruit growers as to tho best mode of drying, packing and generally preparing for foreign markets tho most suitablo descriptions of fruit. Under tho Masters and Apprentices Act provision is made that whero practicable every apprentice shall bo compelled to attend Divine service at least mice every Sunday, and particular attention must be paid to bis morals. A line not exceeding £lO is the penalty for neglect of this. There aro MO racing clubs in tho colony. One third of this number, Sir llobert Stout thinks, would bo more than enough for a population of 600,000, The rremier again pointed out last evening the necessity for reducing tho number of the local bodies in tho colony. Too ranch Government, he said. The confectioners 'of Christchureh are petitioning to bo exempted from the compulsory closing of their shops on a half-day in each week. They arc willing, nevertheless to give their assistants tho half holiday. Tho liadway Commissioners enimot see their their way to carry gravel freo of cost, even if it is for roads used chiefly in conveying goods to and from the railway. During the 13 years the totalisator has been in use, Mr Carncross says, the number of race meetings has only increased by BG. In 187(1 there were 164 raco meetings in the colony, nnd Inst year there were 205.

A man can obtain a divorce on the ground of ndultery; a woman requires to prove the additional offenceof cruelty. Mr Carncll yesterday asked tho Government to give facilities for anrivatc member's Bill doing away with theinequnlity, nnd was advised that a Divorce Bill was coming beforo the House this session when an amendment in the direction suggested could he moved. No small sensntion wns created in tho House yesterday during the discussion on "clause 21" when Mr licoves laid that he considered the Fox Commission n bad precedent and a big blundor on the part of tho Government. He was supposed to be having a shot at tho Premier the other day when he dilated on members who talked somuchthatno one else could get a chance. There might of course have been nothing in that, bnt hero the cloven hoof, wnsnnmistakeablc. —Evening Press. The Auctioneers Act Amendment Bill passed through committee in the House of Representatives last night. A proposal to allow country auctioneers to sell till 0 o'clock in summer was lost. The Prescription law (Light) Amendment Bill, tho Lunatics Act Amendment Bill, nnd Taonui Branch Itailwny Bill, passed through thcHouse.Thc Standing Orders were further considered, and much timo wasted, the Opposition appealing frequently for adjournment. At leugthsouie progress wns made, and the House adjourned at 2.40 a.m. Mr Duthic having admonished workmen yesterday about theatre going, Mr W. Hutchison insisted that the working men had as much right to go to the theatre ns anybody else. Thereupon Mr Crowther put in his onr. "If the working men all did what Mr Duthic did, they could go to the theatre as ofteu ns they liked without asking his consent," declared the Auckland man, pointing to Mr Hutchison with one hand, and waving his other round the House. _ The same old Onehliuga Cemetery Bill is back again this year, and Mrs Yates is to be in Wellington in a week or so about it.

The Minister of Education, in reply to a question yesterday by Mr Lang, ndinittcd that the differences in the scale of pay for teachers in the various pnrts of New Zealnd arc exceedingly unfair and galling to teachers. He was inclined to think, ho added, that Parliament would have to bo asked to fake action in tho matter. "Hear, hear," cried several members, The House saw Mr T.Mackcnzic last night in a bclltoppcr, It wns ono made for n man with a head a couple of sizes smaller than his, nnd when members realised what they were looking at, tho noise of their lnughter completely drowned the voice of the member for Clutha, who had seized the first hat haudy to explain his vote while the doors wcro locked,

_ Mr Crowther conveyed the information to Mr Tanner yesterday that he, the said Mr Tanner, was " not a very innocent chicken." Nor were the people in his district perfectly guileless, This was apropos of a question by Mr Tanner, whether it was in Auckland that cheapJacks sold Brummagem jewellery. Speeches long and short, good, bad and indifferent were made Inst night about the timo limit proposal, and at last members got funny about it, and and suggested that if a time limit was enforced that they would want n largo array of clerks and n multiplicity of sand-glasses and alarm-clocks to keep tally. After any amount of talk, and some degree of wrnugliug, the proposal was carried,— N.Z. Time).