PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 167, 15 July 1907, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

(By Telegraph. —Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Saturday. IS IT A JOKE? Announcement was made early in. the session that the new Attorney-General was introducing an innovation in connection with all new measures coming before the House, in the shape of a brief summary of the aims and purposes of each bill. The idea is an excellent one. and an example makes its appearance to-day in the shape of a preface to' Mr. Major's .Lamps on Vehicles Bill. The memorandum explains: "The object of this bill is to require -all vehicles on highways throughout the colony to carry lights during darkness." The summary after detailing provisions respecting traction engines and motor-cars, concludes as follows: "Lamps on tram-cars appear to be provided for by the conditions under which permission is granted for construction of every tramway, and it is not considered desirable to compel the lighting of wheelbarrows and perambulators." THE CRY FOR SUBSIDIES. "I don't want to raise your hopes unduly," said the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. Jas. McGowan) to a deputation of Taranaki and King Country representatives, who requested subsidies for roading. "My ability to meet your demands depends entirely upon the amount of money available out of the Public Works Fund for this year. I am afraid the amount will not be anything like as much as I would like, because I know the reuirements of the country are very much greater than the sum at my disposal." NORTH AUCKLAND RAILWAY ROUTES. It was represented to the Hon. J. McGowan by a deputation of county chairmen from North Auckland, that an exhaustive survey should be made of the routes of the proposed railway between its present terminus and Maungaturoto. When the line leaves Tapuni, seventy miles north of Auckland, there are two routes, one to the wesward, running through the BickerstafTe estate, and touching deep water on the Kaipara Harbour, and the other more to the eastward, going through Kaipara. to Maungaturoto. The deputation explained that the settlers had agreed not to put forward rival claims, but to leave the matter in the hands of the Government to choose the better route. Mr. McGowan replied that if, as stated, the Hon. Hall-Jones had promised to have a survey made of both routes this would be done. THEY GO OFF POP. The Maori member for the Northern District (Mr. Heke) is an excellent hand at propounding conundrums, some of which he cannot answer himself. When the Minister for Public Health was endeavouring to pilot through committee a bill intended to deal very completely with adulteration and impure food or drugs, Mr. Heke discovered a situation which even this extensive measure of 28 clauses could not cover. Sometimes the working bee digs into poisonous plants, he explained, and when people eat the honey, what happens? The Minister did not attempt to cope with the situation. "They go off pop," triumphantly declared the Maori member.