PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 253, 23 October 1909, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. AUCKLAND'S MEAT SUPPLY. *In the House of Representatives this afternoon, Mr. Lang asked the Minister for Railways whether he would make necessary and proper provisions for the carriage of meat from the Auckland abattoirs to Auckland city by an early morning train. PENNY-rN-THE-SLOT. The member for Bay of Islands (Mr. Vernon Reed) has asked the PostmasterGeneral whether he will erect penny-in-the-slot telephones on the wharves at Auckland. Mr. Reed stated that travellers ta Auckland by sea suffer a great inconvenience by not being able to communicate with the city from the wharves. NORTH AUCKLAND LINE. Mr. Mander has asked the Minister for Public Works whether he will instruct the Engineer-in-Chief to supply a correct plan of the authorised route of the North Auckland Main Trunk railway via Pukekarero on to Maungaturoto and thence to the east of the Tangihua range; also of the proposed deviation therefrom. THE NORTH OF AUCKLAND. Speaking on the Hospital and Charitable Aid Bill at 1 a.m. this morning, Mr. J. Stallworthy said he thought the North of Auckland was not being properly treated. It contained three electorates, and embraced about one-twenty-fifth of the whole Dominion. He thought that the bill should provide for at least two hospital districts in the North of Auckland. WAIKATO SWAMP LANDS. An interesting statement was made in the House of Representatives this afternoon by Mr. W. F. Massey regarding swamp lands in the Waikato. The Opposition leader averred that 100,000 acres in the Rangiriri and Whangamarino swamps lie waiting to be reclaimed. The swamp land runs on both sides of the railway line for a distance of 20 miles between Ngaruawahia and Huntly. In Mr. Masse/s opinion the land is not at present worth 5/ per acre, but, if reclaimed, would be worth. £5 per acre. The Hauraki drainage scheme had proved a success, and would pay handsomely. This work would be finished in a year or two, and the plant then thrown out of operation should be removed to the districts he had referred to and used in draining a huge area of land into the Waikato River. COUNTRY HOSPITALS. Speaking in support of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Bill, Mr. Vernon Reed (Bay of Islands) said he wouk , like to see a clause inserted to limit the amount city hospitals, could charge country boards, and to prevent any country patient whose case was not urgent from entering a city hospital until full inquiry had been made in regard to his financial position. Mr. Reed said it often happened that resi dents of country districts refused to enter their local hospitals, and went into the city institutions. Here they often pleaded poverty, and the country district from which they came had no option but to pay the accounts of the city hospitals when the demand was made. KING COUNTRY SCHOOLS. In supporting his allegations that there are many children in the King Country unable to receive education, the member for Taumarunui (Mr. W. T. Jennings) said the Minister was in error in thinking that Pukekaha was the only place where delays took place. There were, as the Hon. Mr. Fowlds had said, nineteen out of thirty children at that place of school age, but new land was being opened, and other settlers with families were going in. Mr. Jennings then' gave the House a number of other instances,' such as Nihoniho, Tokirima, and Maryville coal mines (Mokau) where delays of over two years had taken place, though the required number of school age children were in the district. So far as the Minister for Education was concerned, the member said be always found him sympathetic with all requests made, but the routine departments were too slow. "ABSOLUTELY INACCURATE." The Wellington paper "Dominion" has a leading article dealing with the case of a clerk at the One-hunga railway station (Mr. M. P. Kearin) who appealed successfully against his scale increase of salary being withheld. The "Dominion" alleged that the Railway Appeal Board's recommendation was vetoed by an autocratic Minister," and urged that Parliament should see that justice was done. The Hon. Mr. Millar, whose attention was drawn to the paragraph in the House this afternoon, said the statement was absolutely inaccurate. The papers relating to the appeal had not yet come to hand, and inquiries had been made to find out where the information was supplied from. He had it narrowed down to three in the

Railway Department, and it wonld-not •be long before it was narrowed down to one. When he did find out there would not be another opportunity of divulging any more information. Contrary to vetoing the suggestion, his recommendation had been to approve of the Appeal Board's recommendation.