PARLIAMENTARY NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXII, Issue 17, 19 July 1901, Page 5

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS AND NOTES.

INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE OR BLIND DISCIPLINE. Tommy Atkins and his colonial cousin were dragged into the debate- on the School Children Compulsory Drill Bill last evening. Mr. Hutcheson looked on military drill as the system that had bred the machiue-like Tommy Atkins, to whom tho Now Zealand boy who had done so well in South Africa was the antithesis. Tho New Zealanders had worked not in blind, mechanical obedience, bu£ on their own initiative of action, and in this way had done- more work with less loss of life than Tommy Atkins had done. Mr. Meredith, also attacked military drill, ou the ground that Waterloo was past, and. that such numbers of men would never again meet in similar con (lie t on one field ; it would be a matter of shooting and tactics. In reply, Captain Russell deprecated invidious comparisons, and declared that the hardest fighting had been done by Tommy Atkins. All the authorities were agreed that the great battles of the future would be won by the old tactics — not by men who looked to the saving of their skins, but by disciplined men who went resolutely "into ihe mouth of hell." CYCLE TRACKS. The reception accorded to tho Cycle Boards Bill introduced by Mr. Fowlds gives overy prospect of the measure passing on to the Statute Book this session. The chief objection to it came from country members, who had gob the idea that the town cyclists would outnumber . the wheelers from more remote districts, I and compel them to pay a yearly tax of 6b per bicycle to form tracks near the principal centres. The idea, however, was quickly dispelled by the town supporters of the measure, who pointed out that city cyclists did not require — as a rule, at any rate — tracks in the immediate vicinity of the centres, but rather would Bee that the money was expended in making tracks for their convenience in the dutlying districts, thus conferring an advantage on the dwellers in the country by providing those who do not own wheels with decent footpaths, and opening up the country to xity men and tourists in a way that must result in general benefit to the community at large. The fact that the measure passed its second reading without a division being called for is a good augury for its future success. THE TROUBLES OF JUSTICES. A somewhat important point was raised by Mr. Jackson Palmer in the House yesterday. Justices of the Peace, he said, had to administer the Acts passed by the Legislature, but in many cases did not know what was in them. Shortly after last session — in which, by the by, over 100 Acte were passed — Justices in tho country districts of Auckland were telegraphing to members in Auckland | asking what were the provisions contain- j cd in certain Acts that they were called j upon to administer. The fact was that many of these Justices had to give decisions in regard to Acts which they had •' never seen before the Statutes were printed, .and before they knew anything about them. Parliament should, he urged, make its enactments as simple as possible, his idea apparently being, though • not expressed in so many words, that the Acts -which issue from the Legislature are not framed in such a way that their meaning can bp easily grasped by the lay mind, or even by the mind of the average J.P. THE PREMIER AND FIJI. The text of the Premier's motion regarding Fiji, of which wo gave a resume yesterday, is as follows:— "That a respectful address be presented to His jtiXcelloncy the Governor, praying that ho will communicate with the Secretary of State for the Colonies, requesting that an impartial investigation be held touching the unfounded and unmerited remarks made by His Excellency the Governor of Fiji in his speech at the opening of the Woinibokasi Hospital, and in which he stated:— lf the chiofs and the more intelligent amongst ,you ask yourselves tho question, What has this New Zealand party got to gain from us? you will not have to wait very long before you see the answer. , You have the lanfl, my friends, and that is what they, want to get, and hope that they will get if you are foolish enough, to listen to them. It has always been tne same in every, country under ihe kind of government that there is in New Zealand— the white men havo always taken the land from the coloured owners. It has been so in New Zealand, where the land once belonged to the coloured people. "Who owns that land now? The white people have got nearly tho whole of it ; the coloured people are cooped up in the fragment of land that has been left to them, and many of them have no land at all. What has happened in Zealand to the coloured people's land will happenhere, too, if. New Zealand gets thiscoun- ! try.' And which said statements, so reflecting on this uolony, were by order i of the Governor, Sir George O'Brien, and in a Government paper, circulated throughout Fiji." COMPANIES AND THE LIBEL LAW. A striking commentary on our company law and the law of libel is contained in a petition presented to the House by Mr. Arnold yesterday. It is from Mr. H E. Easton, late of England, and now residing in Dunedin, who states that he landed in the colony in January, 1900. He goes on to state that he invested considerable sums in mining and dredging companies, and induced his friends at Home to do likewise, being of opinion that operations in connection with the dredging industry were being conducted at least oft honest lines, and that the Mining and Companies Law then in force gave an investor fair protection against fraud and rascality. - On making an examination of the books of a number of oompanies which ne hod invested in and recommended to others, he found gross irregularities, inasmuch- as the oompanies were promoted, floated, managed, and directed from tho office of the promoters, aud in one company a transfer of lub had been npcepbed and passed at a date when money was lowing to the company from. the seller. He found in that oase that/ a -large number of shares had been "dummied" by the promoter, and the commission on those shares, .which only existed on paper, was charged and received out of the moneys obtained from genuine shareholders. Upon finding out that these and other gross irregularities existed, he set about trying to get these companies! liquidated, but then found that several of those who had signed articles of association were not shareholders, and the company's solicitor had so worded the articles as to allow unqualified and "dummy" shareholders to vote. In one cose the vendors' shares were used for voting, and were used by the vendor's employee to prevent liquidation, thereby keeping these paper companies alive for the benefit of the promoters. Further, he found that in several dredging companies the capital was being utilised for purposes other than those for which the public subscribed it, and that no genuine attempt was being made to carry out the purport' of the prospectus.' He was, he | says, debarred by the drastio libel laws of the colony from publishing much that should have been made public in regard > to unscrupulous practices which had bean

resorted to by vendors and their em* ployees, and ho prays that greater freedom should be given the press of the colony in the publication of fuots concerning the glaring evils that are being perpetrated in connection with an industry tft'hich. is of vast importance to the colony. LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS LEGISLATION. The Land for Settlements Act Amendment Bill, read a lirst time in the House this morning, has been circulated. It proposes that section 54 of the Consolidating Act of 1900- Bhull be retroactive, so as to bring land leased before the passing of the Act of 1896 under the special provisions regarding buildings situated on land when it is disposed of by way of lease. The special ppwers a* to preparing land for settlement conferred on the Minister by section 65 of the Act of last year are extended so as to include the power to construct) o/ join with any person or local authority, or the Crown, in constructing, roods,bridges, drainage works, and river .protection works, and such like. The expenses incidental to the administration ol the Acfc are made payable out of the Land for Settlements Account, without further appropriation than the Act. Further '•procedure is provided oh the compulsory taking of land, and under this it is provided that the claimant shall, not later than twenty-one days { after service of the claim for compenea- i tion, file in the Supreme Court a copy of the claim and a notice stating the name and address of the person he ap-« points to act as his assessor, and shall serve a copy of such notice on the Minister, who must file a similar notice in the Court within twenty-one, days after it reaches him. If the claimant or Minister makes default in this respect, the Chief Justice may, on the application of the other party, appoint an assessor, or make, such orders as in his opinion are necessary to enable the claim to be heard and determined by the Compensation Court, and if the default consists of not making or serving the claim, the Chief Justice may order the matter to be heard by the Court in its absence. It is also provided that in applying the provisions of section 40 of the Public Works Act, 1894, (dealing with unrepresented absentee claims), it is not necessary for the Minister to offer the amount of compensation. In order to prevent any evasion or avoidance of the provisions of the principal Act as to the right of the owner to select and retain any limited part of the estate intended to lie acquired by the Crown, it is provided that the area of the whole estate shall be computed as at the commencement of the negotiations for purchase, and no subsequent disposition of the estate, or ; any part of it, shall operate 'to defeat the •power of the Crown to acquire the land. To make this provision more complete, it is provided that the date at which negotiations shall be deemed to commence shall be 'determined by the Governor-in-Oouncil. Land recommended for acquisition may be purchased by the Crown at any auction sale. In disposing of land by way of lease the Board is required, unless otherwise ordered by the Minis- 1 ters, to give preference to landless men ! with families. THE PREMIER AND THE ADMIRALTY. | Despatches from the Secretary of State ] for the Colonies laid on the table of ' the House show that the Admiralty did ; not approve the Premier's suggestion that colonial Governments should be empowered, by legislation if necessary, to commandeer vessels of the British mcrcantilo marine for use as troopships should occasion arise. Experience has shown that suitable vessels can be obtained without interfering with freedom of contract, and the proposal to commandeer appears to the Admiralty Lords impracticable. In their opinion it would be much better to seize ships and compensate owners w-hen such emergency arises than to legislate for such high action as commandeering in an anticipation of emergency. UNIMPROVED VALUE.. The Rating on Unimproved Values Act Amendment Bill, circulated this morning, provides that in future all rates shall bo made on the unimproved value of land as defined in the Government Valuation of Land Act Amendment Act, 1900. This, however, will not apply to the rates mentioned in section' 20 of the principal Act (water,, gas, electric light, sewage, hospital, and charitable, aid) unless the local authority so decides by special order. ADVANCES TO SETTLERS "LOAN" The Government Advances to Settlers Extension Bill is a short measure giving the Government power to raise for the purpose of advances to settlers an additional loan of £2,000,000, of which not more than £1,000,000 must be borrowed in any financial year. JOTTINGS. The man who only knows the "three R's" now-a-days is as much at a disadvantage as the illiterate man was twenty years ago." — Mr. Hutchoson. Mr. Monk thinks that the shortest road to the millennium is to be prepared for self-d«fence. "It is a. pity thai in this Parliament there is not a strong Minister for Education."—Mr. Fisher. " Drill is necessarily military drill," remarked Mr. Willis last evening. "What about knee-drill?" queried a member. "At eight years a child is very bus- i ceptible to be trained in military training-" — Mr. Buddo. Mr. Collins ridicules the idea. The Colonial Treasurer is being asked by Mr.- Pirani whether he is aware that the conditions attached to the bonus for I preserved milk limit the award of such I 'bonus to one firm, and' whether he will alter those conditions so as to allow open competition for the bpnus. Mr. Millar wants the Premier to submit to the House at an early date this session the Government's proposals as to the representation of the colony at the coronation of his Majesty in June next. Even the Judges, 6ays Mr. Jackson Palmer, cannot always understand our laws, they are so amended and botched about. The "discreet woman" clause survives in the Young Persons Protection Bill. In the Council yesterday, the Hon. G. H. M'Lean commented on the return of the disoreet woman, olothed aud in her right miDd." < The Hon. Wm. Jennings wants the Government to give effect w soon as possible to the unanimous opinion of the two Houses that a training-Bhip should be established for New Zealand boys. The Hon. John Rigg, M.L.C., was yesterday elected Chairman of the Joint Library Committee. Mr. Rigg is also Chairman of the Recess Committee, which manages the library when Parliament iB out of session. Mr. A. L. D. Fraser wants the Minister for Railways to give » comparative statement of the consumption. of fuel by the Baldwin engines and by those made in the coloi^l. Speaking in the House last evening on the drilling of children, Mr. A. L. D. Fraser said there were some things we could learn from the Maoris. Formerly, the qualification among the Maoris to own land was, in the case of men, the bearing of arms ; in the case of women, the bearing of children. Auckland found an assailant and also a champion during the Council's debate on the Young Persons Protection Bill

yesterday. The Hon. R. Scotland Baid he did not know whether the Bill was required in Dunedin, Christchurch, tor Wellington, but he was sure it was irequired in Auckland. The Hon. 8. E. Shrimski defended Auckland from the imputation. As & newcomer to that city, he could say that he had seen nothing to warrant such a statement. In the House this morning the Premier, in answer to Mr. R. Thompson, said the Government considered the matter of the judgment in the Mabin libel case, lately before the Appeal Court, as being mttsl serious. There was a necessity, he added, for immediate action to pass legislation dealing with the law of criminal libel. Mr. .Pirani has given notice to ask the Minister for Railways whether he will alter the scale of fares in force on th» New Zealand railways by reducing the return fares and increasing the single fares, so that settlers who are passengers may have some advantage in the concessions recently made to tourists and visitors to the colonies.