PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Hastings Standard, Issue 95, 15 August 1896, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

IN HOUSE AND COUNCIL. [By Telegraph.] (From our Special Correspondent.) Wellington, This day. The Government are making enquiries into a suggestion emanating from Wi Pere that a public monument should be erected to the memory of the late Hirini Te Kani, a leading chief of the East Coast tribes in consideration of his loyalty to Europeans and the Government. It is now as good as settled that Mr H. D. Bell will not seek re-election and that Mr Menteath will be the third Opposition candidate for Wellington. The Hon. J. Bryce is at present in this city, and efforts are being made to induce him to contest the Egmont seat. Mr Brown, of Inglewood, is de- ! finitely out for New Plymouth. The administration of Educational and University Reserves should, in the opinion of the Minister of Lands, be vested in land boards. The Minister of Railways thinks that to adopt Mr Pirani's suggestion of giving platelayers a weekly half-holi-day would be likely to improve the efficiency of the railway service. A Bill containing a classification scheme for the railway service is in a forward state, and will be brought down within the next few days. The unsatisfactory condition of the Bank of New Zealand pension fund and the fact that it is being depleted by pensioners instead of being preserved for the benefit of present contributors was brought under the notice of the Council yesterday afternoon by the Hon. G. Jones, who, acting on the suggestion thrown out by the Chairman of the Banking Committee of the Council, gave notice of motion for the appointment of a committee, consisting of Messrs M'Lean, Stewart, Rigg, Montgomery, and the mover, to obtain information on the subject. The Minister of Lands will probably introduce an amendment of the Land Act this session by which persons holding perpetual leases may exchange the same for leases in perpetuity. There is a regulation in the Railway Department that where persons are injured in the railway service light employment shall, whene possible, be provided for them. Government had no intention, so the Minister of Justice stated, of giving effect to the views expressed in a resolution of the Legislative Council and reports of the Petitions Committee of both Chambers as to tenure of office and salaries of District Court Judges and Stipendiary Magistrates with extended jurisdiction. The Council by 1G to 13 refused the second reading of the Female Law Practitioners Bill, which Mr G. W. Russell had piloted through the Lower House, and which sought to allow women to be admitted to law on the same footing as the other sex. Those who voted for the second reading were: —Hons. Swanson, Shrimski, Rigg, Jones, Kelly, Jenkinson, Reeves, Feldwick, Jennings, Stevens, Bolt, Montgomery, and the Minister of Education. Dining cars are to be run on the main southern railway lines. The Minister of Education yesterday afternoon proposed in the Council the second reading of Ihe Law Practitioners and New Zealand Law Society Act Amendment Bill, which abolishes the necessity on the part of candidates for sS®mssion as lawyers to pass a general knowledge examination.

In the course of a short debate the Hon. Mr M'Lean considered" that New Zealand had opened the" door too wide already. The Hon. Mr Rigg expressed the opinion that an examination in law alone should suffice. The Hon Downie Stewart looked on the Bill as altogether of a retrograde character, particularly in the large reduction proposed in the matter of fees, and The Hon Mr Peacock protested that the Government were encouraging incompetent men to enter the legal profession. Forty eight permits were issued last year for raffles for religious purposes, of which Catholics claimed no less than eighteen. The same return shows that 178 permits for the use of the totalisator were granted, the State tax returning £11,256. Government business is to have precedence on Wednesday's after next week. The unusual course of postponing the Orders of Day in order to allow of notices of motion being discussed at half-past seven was staunchly resisted last night by Sir Eobert Stout, but the Deputy-Speaker ruled that Government had the conduct of business on Government days. Sir Robert intends challenging Mr Guinness's ruling, as he holds that under the Standing Orders it is absolutely mandatory to take the Orders of the Day at the evening.