PARLIAMETARY NOTES.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 8, 27 August 1874, Page 3

PARLIAMETARY NOTES.

THE ESTIMATES. The estimates have passed through the House with unusual celerity this Session, They were taken up one afternoon in a very thin House, and on the Tuesday night following they were brought to a close. They were passed exactly as introduced, with the exception of .£ISOO for the road from Hokitika to Christchurch. Indeed I am scarcely correct in this statement. The money is still to be expended, bnt instead of being defrayed out of the consolidated fund, as originally brought down, it is to be defrayed out of -üßjq This shows the folly of making any attempt to reduce the estimates. The passing of the estimates affords members an opportunity of expressing their opinions on a great variety of subjects. This opportunity has not been taken advantage of this year to the same extent as usual, partly, perhaps, because the present members having been four sessions in the House, are so well posted up in the various subjects, it is not so necessary as it used to be to refer to debatable points.. Perhaps the subject which elicited more discussion than any other was a vote of £ 9 000 for a naval training school at Kohimarama To begin with, very few members knew where Kohimarama was. It appears that this is an old mission station in the neighborhood of Auckland. There was a small schooner in connection with the station. The Government have leased the schooner and the station for the sum of £100 per annum. The schooner is to be changed into a brig, so as to accustom the children to cross-rigged .vessels, in which it is presumed they will be chiefly engaged. The brig is to take trips along the coast, so as to initiate the children into sea- faring life . When ashore at the missionary buildings at Kohimarama they are to receive an industrial training, somewhat I presume after the manner of the industrial school near Dunedin. The vote appears to be rather a fanciful one, but the Government — and particularly Mr. Reynolds — are sanguine that it will be •money well spent; that it and similar institutions will go far to supply the large demand which our increasing trade will render necessary ; that in fact it will be a nursery for seamen. THE ELECTORAL BILT. 1 have already referred to the Electoral Bill, and explained its provisions. There has been a debate on this Bill. It did not meet with general acceptance. The goldfields members did not think it would be so favorable to the class they specially represent as the Bills that regulate the, existing franchise. Other members would support a manhood franchise pure and simple, but they would not support this merely added to the existing franchises. The innovation again were opposed to manhood suffrage in toto. Mr. Stafford at a late hour

I seeing the interest manifested in the ' subject, moved the adjournment of the debate. This was carried.. The follow- , ing day. Mr. Yogel said that the Go- [ vernment would not be able to take up the Bill on the day to which the debate on the second reading was adjourned. He went further than this, He is wise in his day and generation. He is as clear sighted as most people. He sees . well enough that the Government will not carry their measure. He said that this Bill was not so important that it should be allowed to occupy time that should be devoted to pressing business* that the Bill might be brought on at a late stage ; but that probably it would not again make its appearance at all; We have probably therefore heard the last this session at least of the Electoral Bill. MAORI CLAIMS, readers may be aware that Tairoa, the member for the Southern Districts, has pushed under the notice of the House, certain claims which he imagines the Natives of the Middle Island, and particularly - the tribe of which he is the chief, have to the land of the Middle Island. He wishes onetenth part of the whole island restored to him, or money compensation to the extent of its value. The money-com-pensation he is willing to accept is, I understand, between two and three millions sterling*, and not one farthing less. It is scarcely fair that a member should be able to take advantage of his position in the House to push any claims j which he fancies he has against the | Government. One member has lost his seat this session in consequence of his • firm being connected with a Government contract. It is well that it should be so. No Government contractor can occupy that position of independence, which it is desirable every member should occupy. Surely any member, be he Maori or white man, who has a fancied claim against the Government, is equally ineligible. With this view of obtaining what he considers he is entitled to— or something approaching to it — he must be very cautious how he conducts himself. The fact of any, person becoming a member should relinquish any claim previous to this want which he may imagine he had against the Government. THE FOREST BILL. The debate on the Forest Bill is the only debate worthy of the name that has taken place this session. The Premier, when he introduced the Bill, led the House to believe that fie would not broceed further with it this session, than the second reading. Mr Stafford is an enthusiast in the planting of trees,It was not known until he got up what views he would express. A rumor had gone the round of the papers to the effect that he intended to offer the Bill every possible opposition. Very much ■ to the astonishment, therefore, of many members, he delivered a very strong speech in its favor. He said, that surely the Premier did not intend to trifle with the House by getting so many papers printed on the subject of forestry, by introducing a Bill, and then quietly allowing the Bill to drop. Mr Yogel, led on by the enthusiasm of Mr Stafford, said that he intended to push the Bill through. It is generally believed that but for the speech of Mr Stafford the Bill would have been resigned to the waste paper basket, which, indeed, would have been its proper place. The greatest opposition offered to the Bill was by Mr Fitzherbert. He characterised it as a Bill simply for taking away land from the Provinces. The Premier, in replying, made a very severe attack on Mr. Fitzherbert, and our provincial institutions generally. He said that the Government were resolved to do away with Provincialism in the North Island. Mr. Yogel, in his reply, introduced a great deal of new debateable matter. Mr. Fitzherbert used the first opportunity which the forms of the House permitted to attack the Premier, and to call in question the accuracy of the statements he had made in replying. This was on the following day — Wednesday, the sth. A very severe paesage at arms took place between the two gentlemen. Well,, the Forests Bill has passed through the House in a mutilated form. It will simply cause a great deal of unnecessary expense to be incurred, which the country is ill able to bear. LIO,OOO per year will simply be frittered away, and an unnecessary department created. THE ABOLITION OF NORTHERN PROVINCES. The announcement of the Premier that he would do away with Provincialism in the North Island has caused ' a good deal of excitement. The North . Island members are generally in favor of the proposal j but it is different with the Middle Island members. Many of these believe that this simply means one purse for the Colony — that by and bye the Provinces of the Middle Island would be done away with, and the land revenue become the revenue of the Colony. There is a good deal of truth in this view. However, in regard to the Provinces of the North Island, it is true that even at the present time they are being kept alive out of Colonial revenue — that this was the case last year, and that this year it is proposed to grant them loans,, which they will never be in a position to pay, and special allowances as well. To allay the excitement,- and to secure the allegiance of some members who^ ■ owing to their provincial proclivities,.!'

were becoming very : shakey, the Premier intimated to. the House that the Government did not intend this year to take any action with the view of doing away with the North Island Provinces. Mr."V>g©l, at the time he threatened Provincialism in the North Island was in a pet in consepuence of the strong opposition of Mr. Fitzher-^ bert. Last year, when the Legis-' lative Council threw out some of his little bills, he came down with a great speech levelled against the Legislative Council — that the Council must be put on an entirely new basis — and this year because he has been thwarted by a a Superintendent he comes down and says he must abolish Provincialism. Mr. Yogel should not allow his temper to get the better of him. Wellington, 10th August, 1874. :