PARLIAMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2681, 17 September 1889, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL(IIY TKUCGUAI'H.—PHUSR ASSOCIATION'.) MONDAY. Tin; Council mot at 2 .TO jiikl adj aimed, waiting for business from Liio House of Representatives. A message was received from l.ho Governor containing the Hills passed by tlin Legislature, Tho Requisition Validation 15ill was road a third time and passed. Tlio amendment made, in tho House of Representatives in the Native Lnui Court Bill was considered and agreed to. Tho Council adjourned at 12.15 p.m. (ill 7.30 p.m. On resuming at 7.30, the report of the free conference on ihe Lmd Transfer -Vet was agreed to. The Council adjourned at 11.30 during Pleasure. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. MONDAY. The House mot at 10.30 a.m. On the. motion for going i" tn Committer) of Supply, Mr Pa rata moved an amendment to !he eil'ect that it is desirable there should be a reduction of the stamp duty on native lands from £10 per cent, to £■■"> per cent. Messrs Walker, Cadman and Uallance supported the amendment. Sir H. Atkinson regretted ho could not accept the, amendment, and he was surprised at Mr Ballance supporting it, as the matter was simply one of revenue.. Somethins might be done in the direction of reducing the duty on leases, and he should look into the matter during the recess.

The amendment was lost by2S to 22, and the Mouse went into Committee of Supply.

The reuiaindor ."of the Supplementary estimates were passed without reduction. On the extra vote for a grant of £2000 to tho late Mr Macaudrcw's daughters being put Mr Monk moved, that the vote be struck out. He said ho did so in order to a-sort a principle. Sir M. O'Rorko warmly eulojised the services Mr lUacandrcw had rendered the. colony, and hoped the vote would be eariied without a division.

Amendment lost by 2!) to 27, and the vole w. s agreed to. Replying to Mr Hutchinson, MrMiteholsou s.ii I ms far as he knew, the Hallway Comthi-sinners had no present intention of reducing 'ho wages of Railway surfacemen, hut after t'lo debate that had just taken p'ao,'., he should it his duty to direct ihe attention of the Comniissioiiors to the e\pie--si .n of opinion by the House, against any s -ch reduction. In Committee of Ways and Moans, the amount voted by the Committee, of Supply lor services for the year ending March 81st., and agreed to, were reported to the House, and agreed to. Leave was given to the L'ronii'sr and the Minister for Public Works, to bring in a Hill to give effect to these resolutions.

The Speaker left the chair till 3 o'clock-

The House resumed at 3 p.m. Some discussion took place respecting the amendments made by the Legislative Council to the Native L'nid Court Bill.

Sir O. Cray and the Native members urged that consideration of the amendiu"iils be postponed till 7 30. Mr Mitchelson agreed to adjourn for a.) hour.

Sir G. Grey moved an amendment that t,h". adjournment be taken till 7. 30.

Lost on the voices and the debate was adjourned [or one hour. Sir G. Grev then moved that the House adjourn till 7. 30. Lo. ton the voices. Sir H. A. Atkinson proposed that the first and second readings of the Appropriation Bill be gone on with, and he should defer the third readlig till after the Native L uid Court Bill was di.-posed of.

Mr Ballauco concurred with this proposal, bet Sir (■). Grey strongly objected. The Public Works Appropriation Will was read a second time without discussion.

Gn the motion For the second reading of the Appropriation Bill, Mr Usher spoke at considerable length, severely censuring the Coveruuip.nt for not proceeding with the policy Bills that had been promised in the Governor's Speech, and condemning their general administration. He strongly attacked the Premier, and he was called to order by the Speaker for reading a quotation which the Sneaker'declared was unparliamentary. Sir Maurice O'Rorko proceeded 11 state that he should not permit such language as had just been used against the Premier iu any assembly over which he presided. Mr Fisher explained that he was merely quoting from a speech made in that chamber by Sir 11. Stout, but the Speaker refused to allow him to proceed with the quotation. Mr Fisher then continued, stating that the Government were so incapabloof leading the House, and that the only remedy for the present state of things was a dissolution. It was a lamentable thing in his opinion that on the four different occasions when the position of the Government had been challenged this session, they had remained in office by their own individual votes. Ho understood one of the present Ministers intended to contest his seat with him, but he was not afraid to meet anyone of those gentlemen.

Mr Taylor wished the House to understand that Mr PUber was not the new Leader of the Opposition. His opinion was that if Mr Pishor had still been on the Government benches he would have approved of every action of the present Government. Ho (Mr Taylor) belonged to the Opposition, but he felt sure the Opposition did not want gentlemen of that lion, gentleman's stamp, and he thought it was quite time they had heard the last of Mr Pisher's porsonal quarrel with the Government. Sir H. A. Atkinson paid he was quits prepared to expect speeches of this character from Mr Pisher, after that lion, gentleman was compelled to retire from the Cabinet. He only wished to say that what he (Sir H. Atkinson) was now hehad been 2S years ago. The speech which Mr Pisher quoted from, and which he was prevented by the Speaker from finishing, was made before he (the Premier) had asked him to join his cabinet, and it was only with the greatest difh'euUy that Mr Pisher was compelled to leave that Cabinet. As to Mr Pisher's good taste now in condemning measures,' nearly every one of which he had agreed to when'in the Cabinet, he should leave the House to decide. He had nothing further to say on the matter. The motion for the .second reading was agreed to. Both Appropriation Bills were then committed and passed without amendment.

Tho Public Works Appropriiitinn Hill wns rend d third time anil passed.

On the motion fur tins third loading of the Appropriation Bill Mr LVdlance desired to say » very few words. It was not his intention to tain; in detail the -cmrs.) of bns : ness dmiiiu tho session, tint; to briellv ri'frr to some of tiie measures of the Government. Ho wished, however, to ioP-r lii-t to the debate that afternoon about the rumoured reduction of surface men's wises, although lis had never been n s li-p irlef of tho appointment, of the Railway (Joiuini-sioneis he still thought thov should at least have a fair trial, and he deprecated any politic il interference with their functions, If, however, the 0 missioned determined to make a reduction in the, wages of these men he thought they would lw entering upon a political line of action that would more than anything else lend to their appointments being cancelled. Jle. censured the Government for not having taken steps to have the boundaries of new electoral districts arranged, and he hoped immediate steps would be td«r.n to effect that object. It was a source of great regret to him that the population was leaving our shores and he also regretted that the Government had looked at this matter with light hearts, and had never thoroughly grappled with these questions, [t could be easily prevented by a liberal administrations of tho land laws of the colony, and this was the time when the Government should have adopted such a policy The Premier had stated there was no sense of responsibility on the part of the Opposition, but he ("Mr Ballanee) thought that applied to tho Government far mote than the other side of the House. _ Surely there was a want of responsibility in not. passing Bills such as the Civil Service Bill, Bankruptcy Bill, and otheis which they were told wore urgently required by tho .country. The Hospitals and Uhai itablo Institutions Bill had been condemned all over the country. It was the duty of tho Government to ascertain the opinion of the country, and if they did not know it they were not fit to occupy the treasury benches. Tho Government had not in any way discharged the responsibility they had assumed, early in the session, and he failed to see altogether what the Government had to show for the session. He defended the Opposition, especially in the efforts to maintain the purity of the administration of justice. He had not tho slightest ill-feeling towards the Government, but he was proud of what the Opposition had dime, and ho was sure that the country would declare that this parly had been actuated a higher sense of responsibility than tho . Government possessed. The House rose at 6.10 p.m.

Tliu House resumed at 7 15 p.m. Mr Thompson, (Marsden) committed Mr B.illanec's remarks about village settlements and lie said, having visited these settlements in Ins own district, he held a very different opinion as to their success fr that held by Mr Ballance. Messrs Eraser'and Hobos defended the Village Settlement system. Mr Humphreys suggested that when the present vote for the San Francisco expired they should subsidise the cables, a cross the Pacific.

Mr Fish referred to the indecent attack made on the Government that afternoon by Mr Fisher, their former colleague. If reports were to bo believed that lion, gentleman had forced himself into the Cabinet by actual threats. He thought Mr Fisher was deserving of the censure of all honourable mm, for coming to the House and disclosing G.ibinot secrets.

Mr Hutchinson, while bearing testimony to the Premier's high character as a citizen felt that the Hon. gentleman had not continlled the finances of the country in a satisfactory manner. It would be absolutely incumbent cm the Government to ell'ect savings to the extent of £200,000, unless they were to have a large deficiency next year. Si.'G. Grey corroborated Mr Thompson's remarks as to special settlers, whom he considered were very badly treated. Sir 11. A. Atkinson said he was quite prepared to let the country judge between himself and Mr Hutchinson. Mr Ballance's reference to the reduction of wages showed that the Opposition a general election was coining on, but. the workmen of the country would not be deceived by tactics of that kind. Mr Ballance had also found fault with the Government for not having the boundaries of the district prepared, but he would remind the House that ho proposed to do so, but was prevented hy Mr Ballance and his party. He defended the action of the Government with respect to the Property-lax Assessment Bill, as being brought in to afford relief where it was urgently required, but how did the Opposition meet these proposals? They met them by proposing a. No-confidenaa motion, which thev knew would have a disastrous ell'ect if carried by disarranging the finances of the colony, and then by flooding the Order Paper with motions of a similar character. In conclusion the. Premier ventured to assort that the Government had carried out in a fairly satisfactory manner the policy they had initiated of reducing expenditure and restoring conlideuce and the credit of the colon);.

The motion for the third reading of the Appropriations Bill was then carried on the voices.

The House adjourned for nearly two hours to receive report of the conference on the Land Transfer Act.

Taipua spoke at considerable length when the report of the conference was received and urged the Government to withdraw the Bill for this session. The Ron. Mr Mitchelson interrupted Taipna by stating that he proposed to disagree with the clause he objected to. The motion was carried to that elf cut and u fresh conference appointed, for which another adjournment was taken. The Public Works Appropriation ]Jill, 188!), was read the first and second time, committed, read a third time and passed.