PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2251, 20 June 1881, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

[By Tblbgbaph.] [from the own cobbespondbkt op xhk “PEBSa.”] WELLINGTON, June 18. I understand that the Government Bill for facilitating the construction of railways by private companies will probably provide for grants of land to the extent of one-fourth of the cost of construction, the lines to be approved as desirable in the public interest and as possible under the plan sot forth by the promoters. The land so granted is to bo for bona fide settlement by a population to be given. Provision is to be made that the public convenience shall be properly served by the railways thus aided, and for the lines to be acquired by the colony on equitable terms, if desirable. I do not say that this is finally decided on, but I have reason to believe that this is the general outline of the scheme in its present shape, and I hoar it is likely to meet with hearty support. There is much comment on the action of Sir Arthur Gordon in appending to his despatch to the Secretary of State announcing Mr Bryce’s resignation a copy of a telegram to tho “ New Zealand Herald ” from its Wellington special correspondent, giving the current rumors as to tha cause of Mr Bryce’s resignation. The general feeling is strongly sympathic with Mr Bryce in his indignant protest against the unfairness of his treatment. His words have boon construed in some quarters to moan that tho great reason for his resignation had not even yet been fully stated. This, however, I understand to be incorrect ; what he really meant being that the statement originally circulated was not Ms statement at all, and, moreover, was not in its original form strictly accurate, as it failed to mention Hiroki’s arrest as the initial move in his scheme. The “Post ” to-night says : —“ The affair is a very curious one. We are quite at a loss to understand hi* Excellency’s introduction of a newspaper correspondent’s mere guesses and gossip into a State paper, thus giving them the imprimateur of officiel authority. It is the more odd when we recollect the extreme severity of Sir Arthur Qordon’e strictures on the late intercolonial conference for reprinting the article of the ‘ Vagabond ’on the South Sea matters. We can discover no real difference between the conduct of tho conference in reproducing the * Vagabond’s ’ articles and that of his Excellency in sending Home as an official explanation of the resignation of one of his Ministers, what does not itself profess to be more than a Wellington special’* irresponsible gossip about a passing event. If anything, the latter seems to us the more inexplicable and less justifiable of the two.” The Married Woman’s Property Protection Bill, introduced in the Legislative Council by Mr Waterhouse, is just circulated. It proceeds on different lines from the Act pissed last session ; that provided mainly i ! or the case of women who are deserted or cruelly treated by tbeir husbands, or whose husbands are either openly unfaithful or habitual drunkards. The now Bill further provides that a married woman may acquire, iold and dispose of property without the intervention of a trustee ; may sue and be sued and be subject to the bankruptcy laws if she carry on a separate trade. A woman married after the passing of the Act may hold as her separate property any owned by her at the time of her marriage or subsequently acquired, and women married before the Act may hold property acquired after the passing of the Act. A husband is not to be liable for his wife’s debts contracted before marriage, except to the extent of the property acquired through her. Disputes between husband and wife as to property may be summarily settled by a Judge of the Supreme Court. Nothing in the Act is to affect existing matrimonial settlements or the power of making future settlements.

I telegraphed last week that the April railway returns would prove surprising favorable. This you will find by the gazetted returns to be fully borne out, and I have obtained from an official source additional figures, which show that the clear net profit for the month was £50,166, equal to nearly 7 per cent, on the cost for the whole 1230 miles of the colonial railway system.