HANSARDIANA

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 188, 16 August 1901, Page 1

HANSARDIANA

If it had not been for the stringent steps taken by Sir John McKenzie, Canterbury would have been overrun by rabbits, every bit of it.—Mr Duncan.

Now, in addition to that I have the honour to represent four members of this House ; I think I am unique in that rospect.—Mr Bollard.

Mr R, McKenzie: You can always trust the people. Unfortunately, there are people who are sent to this House that you cannot trust; and, in fact, they cannot trust themselves.

Mr Hogg : I trust that this debate will to-morrow open the eyes of the people to the character of some of the legislation which is being brought forward An Hon. Member: Nothing you say will open them.

Sir, wc hoard the Premier speak the other night of “ rusty, musty precedents.” He calls everything rusty and musty if he is opposed to it, but as soon as anyone else commences to embody their convictions in a reform Bill, then it is a dangerous innovation.—Mr Fowids.

What sort of country, let me ask, is Switzerland? I have hero the Times Atlas—the very latest atlas published—and I have looked most carefully in the map of the world for Switzerland ; but the country is so infinitesimally small that it is impossible to find it.—Mr Fisher.

Mr Duncan on native bush: When travelling through the country lately he gave instructions that several patches of bush should be reserved. Most of the busit patches wore in rough gullies, and the land was of little value. He thought it was criminal to allow such patches of bush to be cleared out.

Mr Carroll on Native wills: He was only too sorry to admit that in many cases tho practice had grown up of manufacturing wills and endeavoring to prove them before our tribunals. Personally, lie thought that the opportunities of will-making on the part of the Maoris should be limited as much as possible.

I Hon. Mr Duncan on noxious weeds : But if au Act had been in force thirty years ago to stop people from disposing of stuff they called seed—dirty grain and chaff—there would have been very few weeds in tho colony to-day. They should do their utmost to see that tho seed which was disposed of in the colony was clear of weeds, This would be a step in tho right direction.

Mr Duncan (Minister of Lands) said tho noxious weed Act canto into force very late in the spring last year, and it was not thought advisable to commence too harshly to run.people to death with fright for the first year. The Government did not intend tho Act to be a dead-letter at all, but they wanted to give tho people a little breathing-time to enable them to get ready. It would be just as well for them to take a hint now and show that they were in earnest and intended to comply with this Act.

Hon. Mr Ward on patent medicines ; He thought that the ingredients of each bottle should be labelled on the outside, so that the neurotic modicine-e'atcr who from time to time indulged in these nostrums might really know what they were taking; and he might say ho would sec that the Public Health Department made an analysis of these patent medicines at the earliest possible date, in order that the public might have some idea of what they wero composed of. Some were no doubt very good, but more often they were mero rubbish.

Mr Seddon : And where arc the Opposition now ? In the words of the old Scotch song, “ Oh where, tell me where, are the Opposition gone ! ” An Hon. Member: They are coming to life, and will soon be here. . Mr Seddon: And so will Christmas. We only get it once a year, and they are coming back, perhaps, some time within the next twenty years. I hope that now we shall start a new era, wherein the conduct of all candidates and their supporters, before and after an election shall be the personification of all that is fair and honourable.

A few of the authorities quoted for or against the Elective Executive Bill Bryce on the American Commonwealth, Lord Macauley, Sir Robert Stout, Mr Urthy,Edmund Burke, Professor Kansome, Earl Bussell, Professor Sheldon Amos, Professor Dicey, Hon. W. P. Reeves, Times Atlas, Lord Bacon, Woodrow Wilson, W. H. Becky, Froude, Mr Napier, Mr G. W. Bussell, J. J. Lalor, Lowell, Sydney E. Williams, Mr Disraeli, Carlyle, Hon. George Jones, Sir Charles Kingston, Sir Arthur Cockburn, and others as well as the following newspapers : Otago Daily Times, Dunedin Evening Star, London Standard, Lyttelton Times, Christchurch Press.

Why, Sir, old as he is, ho knows nothing about women. A rainy day keep a woman at home when she is going to help a man she believes in! Nothing of the sort! If she wishes to support a candidate she will go through fire and water, and it is because the women of the country arc with the Government that we prosper and keep in power. It is the careless, indifferent, women in respect to political matters who want to remain in their luxurious drawingrooms and have post-cards sent to them. The country farmer’s wife —the women of the country—brave all the dangers of the road or rain to record their votes, and take a delight in doing it. I know a farmer’s wife who came down the West Coast, and she had to cross the river four times, swimming it three times, so that she might vote for me. —Mr Seddon.

Mr A. L. D. Fraser: They paid their candidates so much to stand for electorates, and found funds for their expenses. That was the sole policy of the National Association. What did they pay the gentleman who opposed Mr Carroll ? Who found the money to pay his expenses, and so much to put into his pocket after the election was over? The National Association. Mr Massey : How do you know ? Mr A. L. D. Fraser: I know it because it is public property, and you dare not deny it. Mr Massey : I say it is absolutely incorrect. Mr A. L. D. Fraser: Well, the honourable gentleman does not know anything about it, and yet he says it is not correct. I speak now not in anger, but in sorrow, and I hope to-day this idiosyncrasy of an effete body will be dropped for ever. Probably these things have been done on our side.