THE DOGS IN PARLIAMENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1280, 5 July 1886, Page 2

THE DOGS IN PARLIAMENT.

[From the Mail.]

The dogs had a regular field night of it in the House of Representatives on Thursday, a fierce battle raging till past midnight over Mr McMillan’s Bill to amend the existing Registration Acts. . The honorable and popular member for Coleridge sought, at the instance of several County Councils, to raise the maximum fee for registration to 20s, instead of 10s as at present. The reasons for the change asked for are twofold ; firstly, owing to the swarm erf greyhounds and lurchers to be found now in all parts of the colony, the losses of flock'owners from the sheep worrying propensities of many of these animats are becoming intolerably frequent and severe, and it is believed that the raising of the license fee for dogs of this class would tend to a reduction of their numbers and to the abatement of the evil complained of j and, secondly, that it is the desire of the County authorities to be able to exercise the power conferred upon them by the Act of 1882 to reduce to a nominal sum the fee charged upon , shepherds’ dogs without a loss to the County revenue, the reduction in this direction being made up _ by the increased fee upon sporting dog& One would have thought that a proposition so simple would meet with ready acceptance, and it seems to the uninitiated in the ways ’of Parliament perfectly marvellous that the House should 4ight as it did and fight fiercely for four mortal hoars over it, while only the night before the Midland Railway Bill, with all its enormous issues, was disposed of in less than three. But the scene on Thursday was a curious study from more points of view than one. For example, there were to be seen loudly declaiming against entrusting to the local govern* ing bodies the power to exercise a discretion as to the raising of a local tax from 10s members who on other occasions pose as the champions of local government and are urgent in their demands for the raising of the status and the extension of the powers of local governing bodies. Then there was the obstructive hostility of the Maori members, who threatened to talk all night to prevent the Bill passing, because they had been persuaded it would inflict an injustice upon their race, notwithstanding that the Governor has power to exempt Natives from the operation of the Act; and, lastly, there was the fact that the Eight Hours Bill , stood next on the Order Paper. This

simple and apparently independent circumstance was in fact the explanation of the whole business, for the genuine

opposition to Mr McMillan’s Bill was so small that it would not probably have delayed it passing through Committee for more than half-an-hour, the rest of

the time being deliberately wasted by - hon. members who would not have

liked to vote against the Eight Hours

Bill, for fear of offending their con-

stituents, and who being unwilling to support it, took this method of burking Mr Bradshaw's measure, the little * Bill of the member for Coleridge being used as the instrument on the principle that " any stick is good enough to beat a dog with." The result will probably be that both Bills will be shelved for the session. We cannot say this sort of thing meets with our approval; indeed, it appears to us to be an abuse uf the forms of the old Parliament **■ which is becoming only too common, and the sooner the standing orders are amended or this absurd and often mischievous system of obstruction can be put a stop to, the better it will be for the dignity of the House and for its efficiency as a legislative body. 4|