THE COUNCIL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 322, 8 October 1908, Page 9

THE COUNCIL.

V' FIRST READINGS. The Council met yesterday afternoon. Tho following Bills were received from the tther, Chamber, and read a first time:— Monopoly Prevention Amendment Bill, Sauraki Plains Bill, Railways Authorisation '.Bill, Public Works Amendment Bill, »nd Education Amendment Bill. ARBITRATION BILL AMENDMENTS INSISTED ON. A' message was received from the Lower House announcing its disagreement with somo of the amendments made by tho Council in the Arbitration Bill, and giving reasons, as reported yesterday, The , Council decided to insist on its amendments, and the Attorney-General and the Hons. J. E, Jonkinson and C. M. Luke werei: appointed to draw up reasons. Tho committeo subsequently drew up tho following:— Clause 29.—1t is improbable that only one assessor will be appointed if that assessor is not engaged in the trade affected. Clauso 32. —Only on-very rare ■ occasions would a member of. tho Legislature be appointed as an assessor. Clauso 33.—While it is not provided that the j Commissioner shall havo any voting power in making recommendations, it is necessary that 110 should havo power to control the business of tho meetings. . Clause 54.—1f tho clause is not struck outj "too frequent applications to vary an award might'be made. Clauso 5?B would give tho Court better ■ control in casos of vindictive influonce against an'industrial opponent. Clause 61 (apprenticeship).—The retention of this clause unduly interferes with tho powers of tho Court. . Tho reasons were adopted. SECOND READINGS. Tho Monopoly Prevention Bill and the Railways Authorisation Bill wero road a " second time on tho motion of the AttorneyUeueral. ' ;; HAURAKI PLAINS BILL. Tho " ATTORNEY-GENERAL (Hon. Dr. Findlay) moved tho second reading o'f tho Haiiraki Plains Bill. The Hon. C. LOUISSON (Canterbury) protested against such important Bills • being brought to the Council so-lato in the session. He urged that the Government should allow the Council hioro' time to deal 'with such; measures. Tho present practice did not allow 1 Hom"gciiitlemeh 'to' do justice'to" liem6elves or to the subjects dealt with. It was lika shovelling coals into a basket. Hie Hon. 1. KELLY (Taranaki) said the' ■bill was of an important national character. It provided for adding more land to New -Zealand, and he congratulated the Government upon bringing'in the Bill, even at this stage of the session. Ho advocated tho taking up. of similar work in Taranaki. Mr. Louisson explained that he had no antagonism against the Bill; his protest was against tile practice of bringing down a number of important Bills during the expiring days of tho session. Tho Hon. G. M'LEAN (Otago) wished the Government success with the scheme.' He recalled a visit to tho locality many years ago; .when it was nearly all under water. He thought tho Bill should have been brought down earlier and referred to the Lands ComnutWo. Great attention would be needed flooded again, and tho Government should keep a sharp eye on the work being done there. Tho Hon. W. M'CARDLE (Auckland) Baid lie was sure the Government scheme would be more or less successful, and lie hoped tney would drain other largo swamps jn the Auckland province. Tho ATTORNEY-GENERAL admitted that thero was somo ground for the complaint made by Mr. Louisson, but what ho had spoken of was due to'the system which had served tho purposes of democracy so long and so w y ell. He thought tho Council would be able to givo as much close examination to the. meosures as to ensure that nothing was passed that ,was not •understood by members. Much, confidence must necessarily be placed in the draftsman. Tho Bill was read a second time. PUBLIC WORKS AMENDMENT BILL. .The ATTORNEY-GENERAL (Hon. Dr. Findlay) moved tho second reading of the Public Works Amendment Bill, which provides for issuing licenses to local bodies and companies for the. use of water power for electrical purposes. Tho Hon: S.. T. GEORGE (Auckland) said the Bill was exactly 011 the lines of an olfer made to tho Government by him on behalf of the Waihi Gold Mining Company three, years ago, Had that offer been accepted the company would now have had a power-house developing 3000 horse-power from the Horohoro rapids 011 tho Waikato River. Instead of that, they bad been compelled to look for other means of obtaining power, and had spent £20,000 011 a gas producer plant.' Tho question now was whether they would throw out that plant and take advantage of the powers granted by tho Bill. The chances wero that they would do ro, and the £20,000 would bo mor.ey thrown away. " in Porpotulty." Tho Hon. J. T. PAUL (Otago) said tho water powers should novev be leased.in perpetuity, and thero should bo a clause in every licenso giving tho Government tho right of purehaso: The Hon. J. E. JENKINSON (Wellington) regretted that the Government had given up tho idea of itself developing the water powers of the country. The only placo whero tho Government had undertaken such work was at Rotorua, and it had been successful. If, however, the Government could not do it, other persons should be allowed to, but with proper safeguards for tho public interest.. No license should be granted " in perpetuity," gild lie could not think how any Minister eould have allowed such a clause to go in. Ncglcctod Reserves. The, Hon. J. ANSTEY (Canterbury), referring to tho clausc which gives the Gpvernmciit the same power as local bodies to acquire reserves for the pasturing, of stock, urged that all small reserves should be in the hands of the. local bodies. At present, he declared, most of these reserves are overrun by weeds and vermin. Members would recollcct an instance of a bridge in South Canterbury being destroyed by . a fire which started.among tiie gorse on a Government reserve.' The Hon. T. KELLY (Taranaki) said thero should bo a clausc safeguarding tlio rights of local bodios to take water for the supply of towns. The Hon. T. K. MACDONALD (Wellington) said that if thoy desired capitalists to come to tho Dominion and exploit its resources for the benefit of tho people, they

had to offor them some attraction. Thc.v must givo them security of tenure, and show them that they would not be ground into powder at the end of tho piece. The Hon. W. BEEHAN (Auckland) supported tho Bill. Tho Hon. C. M. LUKE (Wellington) was glad that tho Government had seen its way to offer inducements to privato enterprise, which had beon driven away by tho provjons legislation on tho same subject, but would probably recover confidence and como back in a year or two. Tho utilisation of water powor for electrical purposes had been successful at Rotorua, Stratford, Reofton, and elsewhere. The HON. J. BARR. (Canterbury) said that intelligent labour realised that, under present circumstances, capital and labour must go hand in hand. Nevertheless, as long as the land was hore\ they wore not wholly dopendent upon capital. Hon. Dr. Findlay in Reply. Tho ATTORNEY-GENERAL, replying, said there would bo 110 rush of syndicates to tako advantage of tho Bill. Tho. difficulty would bo to induce privato enterprise to do enough. Tho Government of tho day should bo given the widest discretion in the matter of insisting on an option of purchase, and lie thought there was no lieed to fear tho advent of a capitalistic Government. Referring to tho point raised by Mr. Kelly, he said that if a borough were allowed to take away two-thirds of the waters of a stream that was being used by a company under license for the generation of electricity, and if tho company had no legal remedy, privato ontorprise would bo severely discouraged. The second l-oading was agreed to. THE MOKAU LEASES. The committee to which tho petition of Joshua Jones concerning tho Mokau leaseholds was referred reported that it had taken evidence and' given the matter much consideration. It recommended that tho matter should bo referred to a Royal Commission .or other competent tribunal, and that pending such reference, any further dealing with the lands affected should be prohibited. Consideration of the report was deferred. OLD AGE PENSIONS BILL. Tho Old Ago Ponsions Amendment Bill was recommitted, and Clause 6, Sub-clause 1, was further amended, so as to read as follows:—"For tho purpose of ascertaining whether thevclaimant for a pension is entitled thereto, aijd also of fixing the rate of the first year's pension, his income for the last preceding income-year shall be deemed to be his yearly income, and the property owned, by him at the end of that income-year shall bo doomed to be his accumulated property: Provided that if the magistrate is satisfied that during the current incomo-yoar tho claimant will probably be unable to obtain an income of movo than sixty pounds, and that 110 has not at any time during the period of twelve month's immediately prior to the hearing of the application alienated or ' otherwise deprived himself of any property with intent thoreby to qualify himself for any pension, or with intont thereby to induce the magistrate to oxorcise the discretionary powor conferred upon him by this. section, the magistrate may, if he thinks fit in his discretion, ostimate the claimant's yearly incomo as being for the purposes aforesaid the income which lie will probably receivo during tho current income-year instoad of the income actually received by him during tho last preceding income-year." The Bill was reported without further amendment. RAILWAYS AUTHORISATION BILL. The Railways Authorisation Bill was put through Committee without amendment. PUBLIC WORKS AMENDMENT BILL. Tho Public Works Amendment Bill was then taken 'in: Committee. : The Hon. W. ! C. I'VCARNCItOSS moved to delete the words,"either in perpetuity or." The ATTORNEY-GiENERAL, after discussion, explained that the deletion of the words would make no difference to the effect of tho clause, which already gave tho Governor power to grant the licenso : for any fixed period. Therefore a period of ten thousand years might be'fixed, and that would bo equivalent to "in perpetuity." Ho urged that it would be necessary, in cases where it 'was proposed to employ a largo' amount of capital, to give such a secure tenure as could only be given by granting the licenso for a very long term. It 'would be best to leave the Government to oxorcise full discretion in the matter. In regard to the rights of local authorities to 'draw town water supplies from streams used for electrical purposes, the Hon. Dr. Findlay explained that the Bill imposed 110.fresh disabilities on:local bodies. If it were not passed, and a person set up electrical works on > a river, and a local body •took away tho water from higher up the stream, the owner could' claim damages or proceed by injunction. If, 011 the other hand, electrical works took water under this Bill, . they would havo to compensate any riparian owners who suffered damago thereby. . 1 ' The amendment was negatived by 19 to. 6. The Hon. G. JONES moved the following addition: —"Provided that no licenso in perpetuity shall be granted without tho consent of Parliament." This was lost on the voices. Sub-clause 6. begins: "Tho license may contain' a provision vesting in His Majesty the King an option to .purchase." The MINISTER said that if this were done and if it wero not provided that the Government should pay goodwill, enterprise would bo discouraged. The goodwill in somo casos would be so great that tho Government did not caro to accopt such a responsibility. Aftpr a lon£ discussion, the amendment was defeated by 17 to 5. Street Widening. Tho ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved a new clauso giving the .Govemor-in-Council power to cancel or vary conditions imposed by Ordcr-in-Council under Section 117 of the principal Act. He explained that Section 117 provided that when land having a frontage to a road less than 66ft. wide was subdivided for sale, the owner must set back tho frontage to 33ft. from the centro of tho road and dedicate the strip of land between the old and the new frontages as a part of tho road. The owner was, however, entitled to compensation from tho local body. Tho local authorities had, however, in many cases escaped the payment'of compensation by get T ting Ordors-m-Oouncil to exclude certain strcots from tho operation of Section 117, subjcct to tho condition that anyone building 011 the subdivided land must build 33ft. back from the centro of tho road.. It was desirable in tho public interest that this condition should be removed in somo. cases, so that the roads could bo widened and tho owners compensated. Tho clause was adopted, and tho Bill was reported with 110 other amendment. It was subsequently read a third time and passed. FINAL STACES. Tho Old Age Pensions Bill, Monopolies Prevention Amcnduiont Bill, (Hauraki Plains Bill, and Railways Authorisation Bill wore put through thoir final stages. EDUCATION BILL. Tho Education Bill was passed through all its stages, and the Council roso at 12.55 a.m.