PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1107, 16 September 1873, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

Mr O'Conor has given notice of a motion for Mr Albert Beetham's petition to be referred back to the Petitions Committee. Mr Curtis has introduced a Provincial L,oan Rill for £30,000, for dray road from Matakitaki to Inangab.ua, on the secnrity of 100,000 acres of land at Matadtaki, Maruia, and Inangahua. The object is to complete the coach road from kelson to Grey mouth. The following are the Provincial Loan Acts introduced : —Wellington, £175,000, secured on 180,600 acres, for works on the West Coast and inland. A bill introduced by Mr Macandrew proposes a loan of £200,000 for a rail-

way from Lawrence, running through the centre of the goldfields of Otago j the security t) be land selected along the line of railway. Marlborough : A loan of £50,000 for two lines of tramway, one being a feeder to the railway j also, for bridges over the Wairau, Awatere, Clarence, and Waihopai. In the Legislative Council, the second reading of the Native Reserves Bill was carried after a sharp discussion, on a division by 20 to 10. The Diseased Cattle Ac"; Amendment Bill has been read the second time.

A Parliamentary return shows the light dues collected at the various ports last year to be £6845 ', lighthouses cost, £5277 ; prime cost of lighthouses already erected, £50,909.

Mr Macandrew has given notice of a question as to what steps the Q-overn-ment were taking to reduce the price of telegrams to the United Kingdom. Mr Luckie has given notice of a question as to whether the Government intend to take steps to establish an agricultural college. Mr Reeves has given notice of a a question why the Minister had altered the intention expressed in 1871 to raise the excise daties on spirits. In reply to Mr Murray, the Minister of Public Works said that Mr Henry Driver had valued the Port Chalmers railway material at £9440, and received £l3B 15s as remuneration for so doing. The Goldmining Bill has been discharged, after an amusing passage of arms, in which Messrs T. L. Shepherd, Pyke, and White were combatants ; the two latter condemning the measure as crude and provocative of litigation, the former defending the Bill. The Insolvency Bill has been thrown out, and also the District Court Acts Amendment Bill, by a large majority.