PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 209, 3 September 1900, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter,)

WELLINGTON, this day. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS ACT

[I understand that the Municipal Corporations Act will shortly be reported from the committee to whom it was referred, and of which Mr E. G. Allen (Waikouaiti) is the very able and energetic chairman. The Bill has been carefully scanned, line upon line and clause upon clause, and has been largely amended, to such an extent in fact that its own father (Mr Seddon) will not- recognise it when it emerges from . the ordeal. One important alteration has been nja.de with respect to a difficulty that l__s stood in the way of sanitary measures in Wellington and other large centres of population. W_n-e the local bodies had power to compel the demolition of unhealthy shanties in the fever beds of the cities, they had no au-1 thoritj*- to order the destruction of tbe rotten materials, consequently there have been numerous instances of the worm eaten timber being carted away to other slums in the suburbs and utilised in the erection of still more unwholesome hovels. A special clause inserted in the Bill by the committee empowers the local authorities to use their discretion to order the complete destruction of the refuse materials of condemned dwellings. The advocates of cleanliness and public healthwill rejoice. AN UNFOUNDED STATEMENT. Mr Napier declares there is no foundation for a statement appearing in the New Zealand "Times" that he contemplates resigning his seat and submitting his action to the judgment of his constituents.

Mr Napier says he has received numerous expressions of sympathy from constituents, characterising the letter signed by 47 members of the House, condemning his conduct towards Mr Witheford as unfair, un-English, impertinent, an intrusion, silly and so forth. Mr Joseph Thornes stigmatises the letter as a disgraceful attack, and urges Mr Napier to keep pegging away. Another compares the letter to a mob of larrikins jumping on one man. NATIVE LANDS. I understand a final settlement has been arrived- at between the Premier and the Maoris relative to the administration of native lands. A number of leading chiefs returned to Waikato in order to bring Mahuta, the Maori King, to Wellington.