PARLIAMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 18, 21 July 1898, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Yesterday Afternoon's Sitting. DECEASED IIUSBAND's BROTHER MARRIAGE DILL. The lion. H. Feldwiek said ho was for the second time introducing the Bill to the Council, and the majority by which it had parsed the other branch of the Legislature, as wnll as its similarity to the .Deceased Wife's Sister .Act, precluded the necessity of a Uwu. speech iv moving its- second reading. The lion. C. C. Uowen i bought noaltoralion of the marriage laws should be brought iv except on the responsibility of the Government, and the fact of this being a private Bill was sufficient reason for opposing it. The LTou. H. Scotland held that it made no iliftVreuce who introduced the Bill, and that it was the logical outcome of the Deceased Wife's Sister Act. The Hon. J. Kerr liad always opposed tho measure and saw no reason to change his opinion, lie moved that the Bill be read a second time that day six months. Upon division the Ayes and Noes were both found to bp 18. The Speaker thru gave his casting vote against the second reading, stating that as it was a private member's Bill he wa>» not bound to support the Ayes, and he could not take upon himself t^ie responsibility of so great a change being made by his single vote. STATE FARMS. The Hon. J. Bigg resumed the adjourned debate on the lloii. W. M. Bolt's motion, and said that he found no reference to the .Levin State Farm in the annual report of the Labour Department, and on enquiry was told that it was not a matter of sufficient public interest. The farm not only paid its way, but produced a balance of profit. The experiment, poor as it was, had to a certain extent succeeded — at least from a financial point of view. The largest aggregate ever employed ou the farm was 4b" men, with 91 persons dependent on them. The number fluctuated, and sank in February last to 11 men, with 19 dependents. The people on the farm were, it must be remembered, those who would otherwise be given charitable aid. Although little aid had been given to the farm, and its scope had not been extended, the result still encouraging promise. There were three classes who could be helped by State farms. The first two consisted of the able-bodied recipients of charitable aid and the men displaced by machinery; these could be taught agriculture on the farms. The thirdclass would consist of those not fit to do an able-bodied man's work, but not old enough to receive the pension that the State would in time provide for its aged citizens. These could there find suitable employment. Something more was expected from the Government than had been given for the last three years. The colony had been living on the memory of labour legislation, but something more was needed to effect real social reform. To State farms should be added industrial associations on the Swiss system. The Hon. G. Jones supported the motion, and hoped that State farms would complete the circle of the Government's land policy. The Hon. W. C. Smith thought the principle of taking people out of the towns for State farms was all right in theory, but practically a failure. The Hon. A. Lee Smith supported the motion as favouring the principle that the Government should help those who could not help themselves. The progress of machinery is continually throwing men out of employments to which they have been devoted almost all their lives, and something must be done for them, and in a colony like this the obvious recourse was to some system of settlement on the land. The Hon. W. M. Bolt having replied, the motion was carried. The Council rose at 4.15 p.m.