Parliamentary Notes.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 379, 13 August 1903, Page 5

Parliamentary Notes.

It is understood that the opposition will elect a leader as soon as the Financial Statement comes down. Mr Massey will probably be elected. The Premier says that there are in this country some firms seemingly reputable who import Belgian and other foreign wares, remove the labels, and replace them by British labels. It was time that a law was passed to deal with the imposition, and probably he would this session make it a punishable offence. The suggestion was received with a chorus of approval. MrE M Smith, M.H.R for Taranaki, is to be asked to forward his resignation as turncock to New Plymouth Borough Oouncil. The Hon J Twomey's Imprisonment for Debt Limitation Act proposes to repeal the Act of 1900. The principal provision throws on the debtor the onus of proving he has not had since the date of judgment against him sufficient money to pay the debt or instalment of it; but there is also a proviso aimed at the assignment system to the effect that no such order of committal shall be made when the judgment creditor is a person or firm whose business is debt recovering unless the Court is satisfied that the judgment debt was incurred to the judgment creditor directly, and was not acquired by the assignment from the original creditor. The Bill has passed its second reading in the Legislative Oouncil. A return presented to the House shows that the net cost to the colony of the Royal visit was .£88,931 ; that the Imperial troops' visit cost .£2,747, and that of the Indian troops, .£1,238. The remarkable assertion was made by the Premier to the House the other day that in connection with Government contracts three leading engineering firms of the colony had entered into a compact with the object of keeping up prices and bleeding the country. •An appeal from Mr Duthie for names was unheeded. A story vouched for by Mr Laurenson when the Medical Practitioners Bill was under consideration: A man suffered from an internal complaint; i the doctor said it was cancer, then ho said it was liver complaint, and when the man died the post mortem examination showed that it was neither, but inflammation of the bowels, and the doctor, a much-lettered one, put in a bill for Mm.