POLITICAL NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 67, 17 September 1906, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

THE BONA FIDE TRAVELLER. The long-eince defunct bona-fide traveller was resurrected by sLy Remington during the debate on th© Railway vote on Friday night. Ho turned up in an out-of-the-way place, Taihape. It appears that the evening train from Marton reaches Taihapa shortly after 10 o'clock, and tlis member for Rangitikei assured the House that anybody — even a bona-fide traveller — had very great difficulty in gaining admittance to a hotel after cloEing hour. No one suggested that tho Taihap© publicans' fear of the nocturnal visitora was a reflection on Taihape's respect for the country's laws; and Mr. Remington suggested that the bona-Jido traveller might be allowed to return to his tomb if the journey from •Marton to Taihapo was expedited, and the train timed to arrive at its destination at a quarter to 8 o'clock. "DOING THE HYENA." On© of the many grievances raised during the discussion on th-e railway vote on Friday night was the failure o"f tho department to provide footwarmers for the trains of the North Island. Mr. A. W. Hogg (Masterton) had most to say about this lapse. He dramatically declared that "travellers had to do the hyena in a bird'eago to k£ep up their circulation." Confidence in Hie administration of tnc department was restored when the Minister settled this momentoua question by informing the House that the footwarmers had been ordered MUNICIPAL MARKETS. • Mr. Hogg is to ask the Government whether it will consider tho advisability of taking power to construct, establish, and maintain municipal markets for the sale of fish, fruit, and farm produce in caees where the local authority, after duo notification and being afforded a sufficient opportunity, fails to do so. THE CHIEF JUSTICE ON NATIVE LAND LEGISLATION. • In the course of his report as a Commissioner to enquire into the claims made by Wm. Humphnce in connection with certain native Binds in the Tarannki district, the Chief Justice, {Sir Robert Stout) has something to say about nativ© land legislation. Sir Robert states : "The easy way in which niany persona who are dealing in native lands get their transactions validated by Parliament, a practice which has grown for th© pa6t twenty years, should, I think, necessitate somo consideration ac to ho^> such concessions should in future be granted. At present there is a Native Land Act passed almost every year. Sinoe 1885 there have been about fifty Acts passed dealing with native lande. Many of them are statutes made general in form, but which are really meant to give relief to private pereona in their dealings with Maoris. If any relief that was to be granted to any individual was given in a private or personal Act, with a careful and elaborate recital of all the facts, such recital being certified to by a judge of the Supreme^Court, as in the case of a private estate Bill, there would be a great gain. First, the Native Land Acts Would not be disfigured by numerous provisions which are only of a casual or personal character, and which make th© interpretation of our native land laws at present almost impossible; and, second, the whole Parliament would hav<* such a knowledge of the relief that wro being granted, and to whom it was being granted, that no Bill would pass without careful consideration. If such a system had been in vogue when the various amending Acts of 1895, 1895, 1901, and 1902 were passed, I am of opinion that no legislation affecting native reserves in Taranaki would have been passed by Parliament." •