POLITICAL NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 62, 11 September 1905, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

THE RETORT COURTEOUS! Parliament is becoming almost as free and unfettered in ita remarks as the famous society on the Stanislaws whose demise was so brightly described by Bret Harte. Mr. Laurenson was enumerating the sins pf Auckland. "And Auckland," he concluded, "gave us the potato disease, and Auckland gave MB Mr. Massey, the most hide-bound Tory in the House." Mr. Vile objected, and Mr. Laurenson withdrew his adjective. "I don't take any exception to what the hon. member says," said Mr. Maseey. "Auckland would be ashamed to send such men as him to Parliament." MAHUTA ON MORALS AND MARRIAGE. . The Hon. Mahuta does not often trouble the Legislative Council with his views, but he was moved to contribute to the discussion on Friday on the BUI that proposes to validate marriages with a deceased wife's niece or a deceased husband's nephew. He regarded such a proposal as being equal to a brother marrying a sister. "A man dies 'and leaves a widow — does it appeal to your moral sense that his nephew should take his place? From the Maori point of view there is spmething impossible in this. The Maoris regard the children of an uncle 'or an aunt as being the same as brothers and sisters to their cousins. We stall confound our relationship if this Bill passes, and shall not know what position wo are in." He agreed with the principle of the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill — it was all right from a Maori point of view. But -we had » number of marriage laws already, and he was afraid that if we had any more it would merely mean the greasing of the legal hog. A WHALE TO CATCH A SPRAT. An astonishing sample of the misdirected and expensive energy of the Lands Department was revealed to an awa?ed House on Friday night, when the Lands and Survey Department's estimates were under discussion. Mr. Fisher produced a couple of lithographed maps, of certain Crown land sections, and "mentioned that they were samples of an oyerwhelming mass of similar artistic productions. The first one concerned a lot that had been surveyed and ready for taking up five years ago. Ever since that time the Government has been trying to let it, and the map was part of its advertisement. The half-yearly rental of this bit pf land, said Mr. Fisher, was three shillings and threepence, and the Department had spent 150 years' rent in trying to rope in these stray oits of silver. The other map was a sample of the Department's eagerness to induce somebody to take tip a section with a rental of £1 9s 3d. THE COST OF LIVING. The difference in the salaries of various departmental officers of the same status has been discussed by the House of Representatives several times during the slow and wearisome progress of the Estimates. It came up again on Friday night, and Mr. Hogg said that a man could live more easily on £475 a year in Auckland than on £500 a year in Christchurch or £550 in Wellington. A former Land Commissioner, who had been transferred to Wellington at a considerable advance in salary, had told him that he was worse off than before his promotion.