POLITICAL NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 73, 23 September 1898, Page 6

POLITICAL NEWS AND NOTES.

" COEMOJtANT " WELLINGTON. When Mi*. Dntlue yesterday asked the Premier to provide for the Victoria College out of the Mount Cook lleserve and to hand over the balance of the reserve to the city authorities, Mr. Seddou compared the city to a cormorant. Its demands, he said in effect, Mere beyond all reason, and he intimated that Wellington had already got more than its- share of public expenditure. There is another side to the question, however, which the Premier has overlooked, and that is the gifts of the city to the Crown. Mr. X>uthie has jogged the Premier's memory on the subject wivh the following motion, which he has given notice to move at the earliest opportunity : — " That there be laid before this House a return showing— l. All costs paid at any time for the reclamation of laud from the Wellington Harbour, either by the Provincial or General Government. 2. The amount realised by sale of such lauds. 3. The value and particulars of all grants (if any) of such lands for any purpose whatever. 4. The present unimproved value and area of the balance of all such laud remaining vested in the Crown. 5. The area and valuo of all land taken from the Wellington Town Belt or other local reserve for any public purpose, and so revested in or otherwise held by the Crown." THE GOVERNMENT AND TJIE MANAAVATU KAILWAY COMPANY. Mr. G. Hutchison has given notice to ask the Minister for Railways whether the Government will consider the propriety of giving notice i^jder the agreement with the Manawatu Railway Company prior to November of this year, to afford the colony an opportunity of acquiring tho railway within 12 months thereafter, so as to take advantage, in acquiring the railway, of the terms which, uuless notice be given before November, would mean an advance of 5 per cent, within the period from 1899 to 1906. GAMING AND LOTTERIES ACT AMENDMENT BILL. The Bill under this title introduced by the Government into the Legislative Council provides for a penalty not exceeding £10 for persons loitering about " any road, street, footway, court, alley, or public thoroughfare of an}' kind," for the purpose of betting or wagering. Constables may, without warrant, arrest persons so betting. Extended powers of seizure are given to public officers in respect of books, letters, (to., in common gaming-houses. A warning from the police given beforehand is to count as presumption of knowledge by the owner of a common gaming-house, or of unlawful gaming. The provisions of The Evidence Further Amendment Act 1893 are to apply to witnesses required to give evidence instead of the indemnitj' clauses of the Gaining and Lotteries Amendment Act of 1885.