TELEGRAPHIC.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5527, 1 November 1879, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC.

[BY SPECIAL WIRE. | Auckland, Friday. 1 W. A. Eoberfcson, mate of the s.s. lona, for alleged attempted rape on the sea, has been committed for trial. The Bay of Islands coal . mine is now turning out 270 tons per diem. The Customs returns for Ootober were £16,715 and the gold duty £294, showing a decline of about £4000 on the previous )* month. The captain of the Minister of Marine, failing to get a full complement of a new crew, took a portion of the old crew who were lying imprisoned in Eden gaol. They went quietly, but declared that, they would do nothing on the ship. ; ■'' ' - Wellington, Friday, The bank returns for the quarter end*, ing 30th September show the; total liabilities to be £8,387,439 ; totalasse.%.---£15,607,71 1; liabilities include, deposits^ (Government) £374,150 ; bearing interest £4,197,380 ; not bearing intere.su.' £2,859,096 ; bilis in circulation, £64,423? notes in circulation, £881,953; balances due to other banks, £20,435 ; assets, including coin, £1,736,491; bu11i0n,£184,472; notes and bills discounted, £5,761,130; Government securities, £188,461 ; good debts due, £7,000,575; other securities, £736,579. A very sudden death ocou/red at the National Hotel this morning. - A man named Robert Sales, a recent arrival from Kaikoura, retired to bed at 9 o'clock last night and rose at 6.30 this morning, when he had a drink of brandy and again retired to bed. On the waiter going to call him to breakfast he found the man dead. The cause of death is unknown, but a post mortem examination will be held. It is believed that he has left a wife in Dunedin.

A deputation from the Licensed Victuallers' Association waited on the / Premier to-day, pointing out the hardr-4 ship they suffered by being made to pay the full rate for underproof spirits. The Premier promised that the Government vrould give the matter their earnest con* sideration.

The Oily Council has rejected the proposal to purchase a steam fire engine. Mr Gouch has written to the Minister for Lands applying for 25,000 acres of land in the Bay of Plenty district, for the purpose of speoial settlement. He states that should the Government grant hini the land he would be prepared to bring out from the United Kfofffom

Mr Richardson asked whether , the Government intended to make any alteration- in the railway tariff this session, and if so., when such alteration would take plata P . l • ... Mr OliVer replied that a .conference or" Railway 'commissioners toot place last month, and suggestions were made which were under consideration. NEW Bllis. . The following bills were iritrddubed and Wad. a first time i— Bill for the reduction of the price charged for miners' rights (Pyke); Land Claims Arbitration Bill (Wakefield). • ' ELECTORAL BILL. Mr. Hall moved the second [reading of the Qualifications of Electors Bill. In dealing with its provisions lie said that What WaS aimed at was that every man having a freehold property, whether incumbered or not, should have the franchise as well as every resident. The Maoris were to be provided for by a separate measure. Sir George Grey said that the bill, so far as the language was concerned, was sin* gularly involved. It was a bill which increased the power of property in the colony. Every freeholder with a property qualification amounting to £25 Wat provided with a vote; In that cose any one man might have this qualification in virtue of .property in at least twenty districts. In nJomniittee lie iVdula do 1 lijs best to get that clause, knocked but. By me Constitution Act the native population was oh actually Ihe same footing as that of the European, but the bill proposed to take away that right from the natives. He felt confident that whatever was the Btrength of the Government they would not be able to carry the bill in its present form. He would insist upon manhood suffrage and equal electoral rights for the aboriginals. He was quite sure that the bill before the House was not what the country expected, and he would use his best endeavors to get it thrown out.

Colonel Trimble pointed out that the measure was only one of a series of bills which would have to be considered together. In one of the others provision was. made for the returning-officer putting to the elector the question, 4< Have you voted at this election already V and if the answer was not satisfactory, then the vote might be rejected. Mr Wakefield reminded Sir George Grey - that last year he said that it was a mistake to think he objected to the property qualification for electors for the House, and that he only meant his opposition to apply to local elections. It was simply cant and humbug for the member for the Thames to take up the position he now did. Mr Wakefield defended the £25 qualification, and maintained that it would add very largely to the electoral roll persons who would be proud to excercise their franchise in vertue of their property holdings. He charged Sir George Grey with being the apostle of • a sham Liberalism. t Mr Moss maintained that the objections stated by Sir George Grey were of great importance, and struck at the keynote of the whole measure.

Captain Russell said that if the natives were placed on the same footing as tho Europeans, they should have equal responsibilities. Mr Gisborne said that under the bill before the House they were asked to disfranchise the natives without having any knowledge as to what franchise was to be provided for them. He contended that special native representation was necessary, but that it should be so arranged that it would bo gradually superseded, so that the representation of the two races might become the same. The bill before the House was defective in that respect, and while he would not oppose the second reading he hoped to see it modified in committee in the respect indicated. Mr Reader Wood contended that the property qualification in the bill was Bimply a mode for buying votes. It enabled large holders to cut up their property and control a corresponding number of votes. That provision, he thought, might very properly be struck out. The residential clause was also objectionable. There was no interpretation clause to show what residence meant. He would be in favor of doing away with the property qualification altogether, and inserting something more explicit regarding the residential qualification. The House rose at 5.30.