PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 176, 25 July 1907, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

(By, Telegraph.—Parliamentary. Reporter.y

WELLINGTON, Wednesday. THE KT4 ORA TTNDING.

The Premier is being asked by Mr. Flatman (Geraldine) whether he will make an amendment of the law relating to packet licenses, as suggested in the finding of the Court in the Kia Ora nautical inquiry, the principal suggestions being that the owner instead of the master should hold J :he license, and that no liquor should be supplied to an officer or member of the crew without an order in writing from the master of the vessel, and that any master or officer of a vessel in a state of intoxication while engaged in the performance of his duty shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £100, and imprisonment not exceeding twelve months. NORTH ISLAKD TIMBER RESOURCES. In the heart of the North Island, now being tapped by the Main Trunk Kailway, is an enormous area of first-class bush, -which has so far been untouched except by the railway engineers, who have had to clear a track for a distance of at least twenty miles through standing timber. Mr. Budd ; o, the member, for Kaiapoi, was greatly impressed with the timber resources of the Waimarino district, through which he hurriedly passed with his southern colleagues last week, and he advised the Government in the House yesterday not to make any great concessions to sawmillers just at present. Timber was rising so much that it had practically become prohibitive in some parts, forcing the settlers to look for a substitute. The Waimarino forests should, he urged, be conserved, as they were in such a central position that high prices could eventually be obtained for the timber if the Government was not in a hurry. The railway freight, he had been informed, was only 3/3 per hundred from Ohakune (the centre of the district) to Wellington), so that carriage would not be a very serious item in the cost of proOhakune and the enormous timber area referred to by Mr. Buddo is practically equidistant from Auckland and Wellington. COSTLEY HOME. The Costley Training Institution Act Amendment Bill (Hon. >Ir. Fowlds) was read a first time in the House of Representatives this afternoon. It extends the powers and increases the number of the trustees of the home.