HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. WEDNESDAY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2202, 19 August 1886, Page 2

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. WEDNESDAY.

Thk House met at 1.30 p.m. Dr. Newman asked tho Minister for Defence if he will forthwith appoint a commission to enquire into the claims of old .soldiers for grants of l.md. Mr Ballance replied that the Government intended to appoint a commission for tins purpose. Mr Macandrew asked whether the provisions of the Property Assef mont Amendment Act applied to manses and parsonages. Sir R. Stout said it was not so intended. Mr Moss moved that there be laid before the House, within a month after the brginning of the session, a statement of expenditure and liabilities for the financial year uYider the following Vote* :—Harbour defences, purchase of native lands, and Thermal Springs, the statement to show the several amounts paid or due persons by whom services were rendered respectively. Agreed to. Mr Macsvndrew regretted he was unable to move the resolution he had gi\en notice of for some weeks respecting the granting of block lands for the relief of the unemployed He thought if they spent a whole notion in endeavouring to solve this question, it would be time wt'll- spent, and it was one of the most important questions that could be brought forward. He asked what was the value of all their legislation compared with nipping in the bud the sapling of pauperism, which was now getting so general in the colony. Speaking for the Otago district, he asserted that if the homestead regulations had been put in force sometime they would not have had half the number of unemployed they had at tho present. It wan impossible for one man to administer the whole of the land>> in the colony, and without at all reflecting on the present Minister, ho felt convinced that they required :i Minister of Lands for each Inland. He again regretted that this important question had not been brought forward before the eve of the prorogation, but he should move the resolutions in order to get them into Hansard. He then moved the resolutions. Sir R. Stout entirely demurred to the statement that this colony was exceptionally situated in respect to unemployed. He also denied that the. unemployed were more numerous than they were soire year ago. No settlement of the people on land would, e\en for one month, .stop pauperism in the country.

The Prorogation. A message was received here desiring the attendance of the members in tin- Legislative Council Chamber, to hear the commission of prorogation read. The membei> then adjourned to the Letrishitive Council Oha nber, where Parliament was formally prorogued by Commission.