PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 179, 29 July 1903, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

(By Telegraph—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day. MAHUTA. Mahuta takes his seat in the Legislative Council this afternoon. He was prevented doing so yesterday by an attack of illness. He was welcomed to Wellington by Captain Mail- on behalf of the Government, who expressed to him satisfaction at the termination of the WaiWaikato native lands difficulty. MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. The Medical Practitioners' Act, introduced by Sir Joseph "Ward, repeals section 12 of the principal Act, and provides for the qualification and registration of fellows and graduates of medicine and surgery in the New Zealand University, or those registered or eligible for registration on the British register, or the holder of a diploma granted by a university in a British possession after a five years' course, provided reciprocity is arranged, and New Zealand doctors recognise such possession. RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. Replying to a Canterbury deputation tha-t waited upon him this evening regarding the prosecution of the Cheviot railway works, the Premier referred to the difficulty the colonies now had in raising money in the London market, and indicated a reduction in expenditure on public works. As to a promise in regard to the date of the completion of this railway, Mr Seddon said that in a licases of this kind there was a' acit stipulation. While the Minister for Public Works might, from an engineering point of view, state positively what time the work could be done in, it was always subject to the reservation that the Colonial Treasurer arid Parliament could find the money. If the work was not finished within the time specified, it would not be through wind or weather, or the rough country, but it would be a question of £ s d. In any case there must be a considerable reduction in the expenditure out of loan. There was just now difficulty in raising money as far as the colonies were concerned. If things had gone on as they had been ■ doing, then there would have been no difficulty in completing the work within the time mentioned. In the allocation of public moneys he agreed that the first railway was the North Island Trunk line, and if that was made the exception, he believed Parliament wotild approve temporary delay in the construction of other lines.