THE HOUSE,

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 321, 7 October 1908, Page 9

THE HOUSE,

MONOPOLIES PREVENTION. Tho Speaker took tbe chair in the House at the usual hour. The MINISTER FOR CUSTOMS (the Hon. J. A. Millar) moved the second reading of the Monopolies Prevention Hill. The Bill directed that part one of the Act of last year continue in operation (till December 31, 1910-

The Minister, in reply to Mr. Hanan, said, < regarding the boards to bo set up to regulate ' the prevention of monopolies in potatoes, ' flour, and other foodstuffs, that the regula- '■ tions had been gazetted, but there had been no need yet to bring them into operation. The price of flour had never exceeded the maximum defined. Tho Bill was read a second time. I EDUCATION RESERVES, < The MINISTER FOR EDUCATION (the Hon. (J. Fowlds) moved the second reading J of the Education Reserves Leases Validation . Bill. Tho Bill has already passed the Legis- ! lativo Council. Among other matters tho J Bill proposes to confer power upon tho Wei- < liugton School Commissioners to borrow j £0000 to dischargo liabilities to that extent, / which had been incurred in tho purchase and . improvement of.certain education reserves. ( The Minister said the commissioners had per- , sonally guaranteed tlie ■ overdraft, which ! money it was now proposed to repay. j The Bill was read a seeond time. | MENTAL HOSPITAL RESERVES. < The Mental Hospital Reserves Bill came , up for second reading. The Bill deals with , the exchange of lands between the Wellington Hospital J3oa'*d and tho Government) the latter's land being a portion of the Mount View reserve. The Bill further proposes to cut up and lease the remaining portion of the Mental Hospital site, consisting of 51 J acres. . The MINISTER said that,the cutting up ! and lease of this portion of the Mental Dos- j pita] site would assist to pay for extension < work connected with the mental institution. ; I Mr. AitUen Objects. i Mr. J. G. W. AITKEN (Wellington East) j drew attorition to certain facts in connection ' with tho Bill. It might not be known that the land proposed to be leased was part of tho Town Belt. Land had been taken away < from'tho Belt in the very early days for. . mental and other hospital buildings, and colleges. When this land was taken it was not expected the property would be required for /< any other purposes in the future. The posi-. ( tion was now entirely changed. If the J Government intended to remove the Mental i Hospital from the present Mount View site < tho land should revert to the City Council. 5 He did not see the justice of the Government 1 stepping in and saying the land was theirs, ] and that they had the right- to sell or lease i it. It was one thing to, have a mental hos- < pital on the land, and quite another to i have a crowded locality there., He hoped i the matter would be well thought out before 1 the Bill was passed. He was suro the Wei- i lineton citizens were unaware'of the mten- i tions under the Bill. Had they known, their I voices would have been raised long ago. The ' Bill had only just been printed and circu-. lated. It was quite a wrong and an unfair 1 thing to attempt what was proposed. 1 Another ; Mr. IZARD (Wellington North) said his 1 attention had only been drawn to the Bill . in the last few hours. He understood that the land, in the first instauce, had been 1 taken for a montal hospital, iind not for revenue production purposes at all. He claimed that it should go back to the city again. Had it been known that the present proposal was to be given effect to, Wellington would have protested against it. Mr. W. Hi P. BARBER (Newtown) also spoko of tho injustice of the proposal. Tho land had been taken, in the first place, without compensation. Now that the Govern; 'ment found they did .not require it they pro-posed-to take power (under tho'Bill), to road and lease it. Had the citizens realised what was to be done there would have been a great outcry and "almost a revolution." He directed attention to the importance Wellington citizens 'attached to breathing spaces, as shown ;by tho largo expenditure on recreation reserves. "A Want of Gandour." Mr. W. ERASER (Wakatipu) said there' had been a want, of-.candour. Ho. had been told the previous'day,"on inquiry, that the land bad not belonged to tho City of Wellington in the first place. Now they found it bad. He protested against the proposals. Mr: J: HANAN (Invercargill) said tho land had been, first vested in. the, provincial authorities, aiul bad then' passed into tho possession of the Crown for public purposes. Mr. A. W. HOGG (Masterton) said the city members were responsible for the Bill. There had been violent nrotests against tho placing of the Mental Hosnital on its present site. ' Now. the Wellington members objected to the, proposed utilisation of tho laud necessary in tho removal of tho institution. • , Mr. FISHER (Wellington Central) complained that the Bill was being forced through the. House at the end of tho session. He said the land had been set aside for tho city by the New Zealand Company, and harl been vested in the Superintendent of the Province bccauso 'tWe existed then no local authority. In 18SS a, Bill was brought' in, called tho Wellington Asylum, Homo, and Orphanage. Bill, and it' took away from tho Superintendent of tho Province tho reserves mentioned, wh'ch wern precisely those of the present Bill. He would sit until Christmas before he saw tho Bill pass. The Minister in Reply. ' The MINISTER, in replying, said tho Wellington people wero all in accord with the proposal to exchange land to secure a fever hospital site at Mount View. If a portion of the. land were ceded to the city hospital authorities, as was proposed, it would render the locality of little use for the Mental Hospital, and the Government could not afford, therefore, to practically throw away £250,000 worth of property. The land was State property in spite of what had been said. ("No, no.") If the Wellington ■ members thought they were going to lay hands on the land and steal it—(Oil, oh!) —he would show them they wero not. (Hear, hear.) He proceeded to trace tho history of the reserve to prove his statement. It would be a long time before a Government would allow a national _ property to be handed over to the municipal authorities to be used for revenue-producing purposes. He advised the City Council to make better use of some portions of their reserves, which were in a disgraceful condition, before setting covetous ej;es upon this property. The State, in taking over tho maintenance of the hospital from the provincial control, wero quitq entitled to the reserves that went with it. Tho Wellington members called for a division on the motion for the second reading, which was carried by 38 to 18. GORE PUBLIC LIBRARY. The second reading of the Gore Public Library Bill (Hon. R. M'Nab) was carried. HAURAKI PLAINS. The second reading of the Hauraki Plains Bill (the Prime Minister) was carried. UTILISATION OF WATER-POWER. The MINISTER FOR PUBLIC WORKS, •in moving the second reading of the Public Works Act Amendment Bill, said ' that its main object was to enable the water-power of the colony to be utilised by those who ; were willing to make use of it. The Covi eminent had so much to" do' in roading and ; railing that they could not spend upon dej veloping our wonderful water-power reserves , at nresent.

Sir. MASSISY said that this was another Bill which should not he hurriedly dealt with. He agreed with the principle of tho Bill, and thought it was to he regretted that such legislation had not been introduced earlier. Had this been done the machinery of the Waihi Company, instead being driven by steam or gas, might li'avo been driven by electricity generated from the Waikato Rivet Mr. C. M. GRAY (Christchurch) approved of most of tho clauses of tho Bill, but thought the water-power of tho country should not be handed over to private persons. , , • Mr. G. WITTY (Riccarton) took the same view,' hut thought it was right for local bodies to bo granted facilities as proposed. Tho Bill should have been brought down earlier. The Hon. W. HALL-JONES, m reply, said that parties who had to put up expensive works to utilise water-power could not

do it on short leases. It was done for tho ( benefit of tho people, aiid the Government ,y was given power in the Bill to take post session without paying compensation. > ( The Bill was read a second time. . 5 ARBITRATION BILL. Tho amendments made in tho Legislative J; Council to tho Industrial Conciliation and ; Arbitration Act Amendment Bill came lip for. , f discussion. . The MINISTER FOR LABOUR (tho Hon. 1 J. A. Millar) snid ho agreed to all the amend- . ments except tlio'so contained in Clauses 29, 32, 33, 54, 578, and Gl. He desired Clause 1 2D, dealing with the appointment of assessors, to remain as it was. Regarding Clause 32, ho objected to members of Parliament s being eligible for appointment as assessors. , Tho amendment of Clause 33 proposed to i give the commissioner a vote. With this ho •' disagreed. In Clause 54 tho Council had 1 struck out tho .proposal to give the Court 1 power, under differing conditions of trade, c t„-> review the award. He could not agree to j that. The amendments to Clauses 578 and 61 ho also enumerated briefly, and said with- J out comment that he objected'to them. Tho r Minister moved that Messrs. Tanner, Hardy, J and himself bo a committee to draw up rea- ' sons for disagreeing with the amendments. This was agreed to. 1 i THE DEFENCE BILL. 1 In moving the second reading of the Defence Amendment Bill, The MINISTER said it proposed to amend Section 48 of the Defenco Act. Under that section it was required that before an elccted officer could bo appointed a certificate as to his qualification had to be forwarded by the officer in charge. The objection to this 1 was that it gavo officers a statutory power, i tho non-compliance with which prevented the 1 appointment being made. The amendment j proposed that the Council of Defence have c the power of appointment. At present they s carried no power, but had to bear tho blame, r A Valuable Bill. x Mr. FISHER (Wellington Central) wel- < corned tho Bill since it would prevent such a i contretemps in volunteering such as they r had had in a Wellington corps recently. A 3 sergeant-major had been discharged after 1 eleven years' service without sufficient rea- i son, An inquiry had been held, but those ' holding the inquiry had been forced into tho i position.of bringing in a verdict against tho 1 man rightly or wrongly, on obsolete charges, t 'Otherwise..the-finding'would have resulted in ' a declaration of want of confidence in the I cotnmahding' officer. Someone had wanted the man. out of the corps. Had the officer's conduet been found wol-thy of inquiry, that inquiry should have been held. The Bill j took away the power of a district .commanding officer to dismiss a volunteer. ■ Mt. \ Fisher went on to say that tlic'caso ho re- , ferred to was that of Sergeant-Major Tal- , bot, of the Heretaunga Rifles. The charges againsfhim had been trumped up, one being that he had jumped a hurdlo after tho bugle had sounded tho fall-in. Mi-. BARBER (Newtown) dealt at greater length with the matter, and championed tho j cause of the officer. Mr. T. WILFORD said they had heard j only the one sido of tho case. Was a state of virtual mutiny to bo allowed to exist in any volunteer corps? , The Minister Replies. ' The MINISTER, in reply, said sufficient ' publicity had been given to the matter with- , out tho Minister in charge of the Department dragging it in before tho representatives of the people. TouchinK on the incident as it afTceted tho present, Bill, ho said that objection in tho case'under review had been taken to the procedure bringing about the dismissal. This dismissal having taken place, tho Council of Defence was powcrlpss to reverso it, had it been wrong. The only method availablo was to restore the noncommissioned officer and then hold a court of inquiry.. This bad been done, and tho finding had justified tho action that had been • taken in regard to tho officer. _ This Bill would prevent an .officer dismissing a volunteer. Tho Bill was read a second time. ARBITRATION BILL. Tho MINISTER'. F.Oit LABOUR submitted the reasons a'si -draVtt; tip.: by the committee appointed for the purpose, for disagreeing with the amendments made in the Legislative Council to the Arbitration Bill. Tho amendments to Clause 59 were objected to on the ground that, 'where an assessor of a Conciliation Council was appointed oil . each side, it was not desirable that he should bo unconnected with the industry. Clause 32: Amendment objected to for the reason that tho appointing of members of the legislator as assessor, etc., had been consistently discountenanced by Parliament (luring recent years." - Clause 33: Amendment objected to for tho reason that it placed too much powor in the hands of the Commissioners. They should not have voting power. Clause 54' should not have been struck out, as it provided the' necessary degrees of olasticity wanting / in the existing law. Clause 578 (throwing the onus of dismissal upon the employer) was unacceptable for tho reason that it would bo practically impossible to secure conviction'in any case. Clause 61 should bo retained for the reason that it was necessary to prevent an evasion of awards, which experience had shown had existed. The report was adopted. IN GOMIYIITTEE, The following Bills were put through Committeo without amendment: —Monopoly Prevention Amendment Bill; j Defence Amendment Bill; Education Reserves Leases Validation Bill; Gore Public Library Vesting Bill; Hauraki Plains Bill; Railways Authorisation Bill; Public Works Act Amendment Bill. THIRD READINGS. The above Bills were read a third time without discussion. Progress was. reported on tho Mental Hospitals Revenue liill, and leave was asked to sit again. VALIDATION COURT EMPOWERING BILL. The Validation Court Empowering Bill was read a second time, pro forma, and referred to the Native Alfairs Committee. EDUCATION BILL. Tho MINISTER FOR EDUCATION moved the adoption of the report of the committee of the House on the Education Act Amendment Bill. Mr. MALCOLM (Cfutha) went at length into the provisions of the Bill. 1 Tho MINISTER, replying after an hour's discussion, thanked all those members who had voted with him and had thus prevented the blight of a universal school book falling upon education in New Zealand. ("What ' rot," and "hear, hear.") Ho appreciated the' motives that had prompted members to chcapen the cost of books to parents, but he proceeded to argue that the proposal would have anything but tho desired effect. ' The Minister then briefly recapitulated what had been accomplished in the Bill. Referring ! to tho matter of the Wellington Girls' Coi- ' lege and free places, tho Minister said there was too much of a desire on the part of the j college authorities to preserve the rich endowments of the college for the rich. It was " not a matter of want of room, a solution 3 must bo found. . Mr. Aitkon: They have no endowments for f tho Girls' College. ; The Minister said they had. The endow- ? ments for tho Boys' College were available S also for the Girls'. He hud legislation under , consideration to compel the. hands of tho Girls' Collego authorities. » Tho report was adopted. ° WORKERS' COMPENSATION. d On tho motion to go into committeo on t the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Hill, y The MINISTER FOR LABOUR' (Hon. J- '- A. Millar) explained that at present an employee could sue for compensation for accie deiits under four different Acts, and it would '1 bo very much more convenient to have all I. these consolidated and simplified. The Bill n extended tho right to claim for compensation to all classes of employees. Servants of ', the Crown were included. The eompens.v i- tion on death, in the case of totnl depend>t oncy, was increased from £401) to £500.

(Other provisions of tho Act were published yesterday.) A new feature of the Bill was that a dependent, resident out of the Dominion, should not be entitled to compensation unless tho Acts of his country conferred tho same rights. This was only fair. Mr. HERRIES regretted that more timo had not been given to go into the Bill. But ho recognised it was an advance oil the old Act. The Bill throw the onus, oil the case of landowners, on the principle and the contractor, and not upon tho mortgagee. Mr. WITTY (Riccarton) welcomed tho Bill, but wished the benefits in some respects wero more liberal. , . Mr. T. M. WILFORD (Hutt) complained that the Government was stingy in compensating its employees for accidents. Several other members having spoken, the Minister replied, thanking members for the favourable reception given to the Bill. Ho promised that regulations would he made under Clause 18, and the Government, in carrying them out, would see that compensation was paid weekly. As to what had been said of Government employees, thero was no private employer that treated bis men as well, generally speaking, as tho Government did. Many drew their full pay week after week when disabled. i In Committee on tho Bill, Clauses 1 to 16 were passed without amendment. Progress was then reported, and the House rose at 1.20 a.m.