GENERAL ASSEMBLE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1878, 12 August 1874, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLE.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. [Anglo-australian press telegraph . AGENCY.] Wellington, Aug. 11. In the House of Representatives, ten days leave of absence were granted to Mr Pyke. Mr Tribe presented a petition to exempt Ross firemen from serving on juries. Mr Fox presented petition from Auckland, Christchurch, and Kaiapoi, in favor of the existing Licensing Act. Mr Von der Hyde took his oath and seat. Mr Fox, having moved that petitions in favor of last year's Licensing Act be read, made a vigorous speech in support of the prohibitive principle of the existing Act, and in denunciation of the liquor traffic generally, as the main cause of a great deal of demoralisation, destitution, and decay in the Colony. He maintains that the : . Government had no right to bring down the present Bill, after the House giving into the Permissive principle, after resisting it for three years of fair open fighting. Let the Government still introduce a prohibitory clause, and he would support the Bill, He wa3 afraid the Premier had not sufficiently studied thia question, and did not display the same statesmanlike grasp noticeable in the many large measures he had introduced before in the House. The motto of the present measure seemed to be, " Let those drink now who never drank before ; and who drank, still drink the more." In editing " The Hand-book of New Zealand," the Premier had said that colonising meant establishing homes, yet the Bill before them meant the destruction of homes with one hand, and he was building up with the other. The liquor trade was unlike the ordinary beneficial trades of society, and required to be hedged round with safeguards for the people, and yet Government evinced the uDmoat reluctance to place its control in the hands of those most directly affected. Road boards, muinicipal, and other local legislation were entrusted to them,; and why was not this. Thd speech of the Premier in Otago, when he declared himself an advocate of the female franchise, was diametrically opposed to thia -'Bill. The Wellington petition was signed in a base and unmanly way ; the question was essentially women's, yet only males, were allowed to sign that petition, He was sorry that, amongst those who made the signatures, he saw the names of men whom one would turn from in disgust, but. who ought to be filling the highest places in the land. The Premier defended the Bill as one which caused immense trouble in preparation, though intended mainly to remedy the defects of the . Bill of last year, to cross its t's and dot its is. Owing to the enthusiasm of the hon. member for Rangitikei his usually logical acute mind was slightly biassed consequentlycould not accept his deductions. The Bill of last year was unworkable, and satisfied neither one side nor the other. It simply amounted in practice to confiscation and the invasion of privato houses by enthusiasts in the temperance cause. The Bill was proceeded, with, nearly every clause meeting with considerable opposition from various members, chiefly on the ground that'generally the Provinces should have control of the machinery of the Bill, and that Licensing Boards should be appointed by the people, in place of the Licensing Benches nominated by the Government. The division on this point of the clause, was retained by 42 against 20. A considerable discussion took place on the clause permitting two bars in one house, but it was carried. There was a strong . opposition also to the facility of obtaining wholesale licenses and to bottle licenses, but objections over ruled, arranged that Provinces should have control of bottle licenses. Mr Fox endeavored to report progress at clause 13, providing for quarterly license meetings. The Premier contested the ground inch by inch, and the Bill progressed to clause 24, which was postponed. Some alterations were made, but they were not very important. : After some discussion the House agreed '

at 1.30, that progress be reported, and adjourned. The following is the substance of the interim report of the Ward-Chapman Committee. The Committee has found that the charges made by Judge Ward against Judge Chapman are not sub-, stantiated, and that in issuing an order ex parte for the inspection of the telegrams, Judge Chapman had not acted partialy in the discharge of his judicial duties. The Committee recommended that the Government should make arrangements for periodically altering the Circuits of the Supreme Court, and for changing the District Judges. At the opening of the House, this afternoon, the Premier made a brief statement regarding immigration and its progress durißg the past year, and pro: posed expenditure for the next. During the last year, 17,513 souls :| had 1 been brought out. Of these 7503 ' had be^n brought but under the Immigration and. Public Works Act. There 1 are now on the water 14,530, almost as many as the whole of the last year. Although', the Government had considerable cause for dissatisfaction with the Agent-General for not carrying out the Government's instructions exactly as they desired, they were still bound to admit he has worked zealously, and according to his own ideas of what was right, and. he had many difficulties to contend with, but the correspondence laid before both Houses gave allinformation necessary upon the subject from both points of view, and it should be remembered many thousand miles intervened between those who issued instructions and those who had to carry them out. The following principal estimates were submitted — Agent General's depot:^— Owing to the great expansion of increased clerical labor, and. the establishment of branch agencies in the United Kingdom, the vote was increased to L 12,06 5; expenditure for the introduction and locating of immigrants on the way, increased from L 25,000 to L 27,000 ; appropriations for different Provinces for meeting various expenses incidental to immigrants, and inclusive of advances for works in connection with the location of settlers, including advances for cottages :— Auckland, L 17,858; Taranaki, L 20,125; Hawke's Bay, L 12,136 ; ; Wellington, L 66.285 ; Nelson, LI 1,150 ; Marlborough,; L 16 ,535 ; Westland, L 14,175; Canterbury, L 317,121; Otago, L 17,395 ; which with various other expenses in connection with depots, steam launches, &c, makes a total vote of L 471,161. [In the above telegram there is an evident mistake, so far as the figures are concerned, but the late hour at which they were received prevents us from making further inquiries and corrections.]