POLITICAL GOSSIP.

Evening Star, Issue 9773, 1 August 1895, Page 2

POLITICAL GOSSIP.

[From Odr Parliamentary Repobteb.] , WELt®|oN f Apotol 1.

; The Otago Dock BUI. v The Otago Dock Amendment Bill, passed' its final stages in the House this Clause 2 was amended' so as to Unlit the money borrowed by way of oveidraft to the amount of the revenue outstanding and uncollected at the end of the financial year, thus adopting the principle embodied in the Dunedin Loan CouveraionaJlill. Subsection I of.clause 5, dealing with the powers of thq Dock Trust, was aihehded by the excision of the right to construct aiid maintain warehouses and storehouses, antf limiting 1 the Trust’s power to erect cool stores and sheds adjacent thereto.

Scripture lessons. An extensively signed petition from Tapanui and the surrounding districts was presented by the member for Glulha yesterday, praying for an amendment of the Education Act so as to permit school committees to sanction the daily reading in the public schools of the Scripture lesson books of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland. Appointments. A return laid on the table yesterday states that the following appointments to the Justice Department have been made :—Dr Fitchclt, law draughtsman and assistant law officer, at £650 per annum from the Ist April, 1895; Mr Joseph William Poynton, stipendiary magistrate, at £4OO per annum from May 27, 1895; Mr Robert Loftus Stanford, stipendiary magistrate, at £4OO per aunufai from December 19,1894. Jottings.

It is arranged that Mr Mitcbelson shall begin the Financial debate next Tuesday. Members are being besieged with comffiaints regarding individual instances of lardship arising out of the tariff proposals, and there are certain to bo innumerable divisions and much fun when the Customs Bill is in committee.