IN THE HOUSE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIV, Issue 12274, 17 August 1900, Page 6

IN THE HOUSE.

THE PROFITS OF MEAT COMPANIES.

[Froii Our Correspondent.] ■ WELLINGTON, August,ls. Once more the profits of meat export.companies engaged the attention of the House. Captain BJussell sought to stem the torrent of the reformers' eloquence by analysing the financial position. What would have happened to this particular company, he wanted to know, if,, instead. M rising, the. price of meat had gone down a farthing?' A loss of £25,000 on'lamb and mutton alone, he proceeded to show, and if wool! and tallow were added "there would have' been a loss of £33,000. ' .

Mr Meredith took title rhanly..view of the situation which became the. sturdy farmer, rebuking the lack of enterprise of these farmers of the north, protesting against the measure, as. a most, vexatious'.and' unhappy interference with private industry. He informed the House that the greatness of Canterbury as a meat exporting province was not built up by whining such as this on the floor of this House, and he called upon the north men to follow the Canterbury example and put their shoulders to .the wheel.

1 Two Ministers upheld the Bill.' Mr Fraser patted Mr Meredith on the backhand the member for Riccarton would. not/ hear of giving the Bill leave to come.in, for the simple reason that he could hot allow the moderate Canterbury . companies, tojbe exposed to the lash meant for the greedy people further'..north. At the same tame he would not mind a graduated tax -on f the' profits,of such-institutions. .."",.,' :.'.■:.'-;.' ' Mr M'Nab piled up the profits inHhese companies till they made his mouth; water; and gave way to Mr Flatman, who joined the uncompromising Canterbury contingent. The member for'Wairarapa he considered to be making a cheap attempt to get information, " pumping the House, Sir," to enable him. to draft a Bill on a matter he knows absolutely nothing about. 'He had- talked, about sending sheep to Canterbury straight to the freezing room. The member for Wairarapa denied it. Very well, Mr Flatman would say that if he had said it he would have.been wrong. It appears the honour of Canterbury is at stake. All sheep coming to Canterbury require topping off, and the process gives the meat a brightness which' is quite unknown anywhere else. If the.honourable ..gentleman himself would only spend a short time in that favoured district he would receive the benefit. He would find himself back here a far brighter honourable member in all other respects. Mr ;Flatman made common cause with his predecessors from Canterbury,, and he eulogised Captain Russell's excellent exposition. When the member for Wairarapa at last got his chance to' reply, he complained of, the Canterbury contingent not having observed that- in his opening speech he had exalted Canterbury as much as even they could, have desired. He met Captain Russell's, farthing argument by declaring that the.meat export company does business on certainties, having sold every pound of meat before shipment, and the question why the grower doesn't ask the company to freeze on, his account he answered by declaring that the works are always too full to take 1 a solitary carcase. Then he fought for his district. Thousands of Wellington district sheep were frozen in Canterbury and sent Home as Canterbury prime. "The butchers, used them," put in Mr Flatman. "Yes," Wairarapa assented, "the heavy sheep, but the prime '.freezers were, sent Home, and though bred'in Wellington, they. Were-sold-as Canterbury?' " '. "'■! After hearing Mr Hornsby the House gave him the leave he wanted. WELLINGTON, August 16. AFTERNOON SITTING. That meat, company question got into the House again this afternoon. Of course the Premier had seen the balance-sheet of the Wellington Meat Export Company, the sorrows of the small; settler therein, disclosed . touched his heart; •he thought these excessive profits a proper subject of inquiry by a committee. He went on to mention -the huge profit in d-etafl, which he had got from ■a sure hand, wfifen he was interrupted by Captain Russell's voice .in firm denial, and] there was a great shout. The Captain happened to be trotting into the House when the Premier got to .one of the big sums was building up on the company's back. "Incorrect," the leader of the Opposition said, and got into the first place available from which to show fight. The place was on t the Ministerial side. The House laughed, and banter flew round the Captain's devoted head for quite a time. When it was over, the Premier offered him, if he would help to get the committee elected, to give him the : nomination of five of the members. After. that the eternal meat question disappeared, and Mr Brett and the Press Association came on for their turn soon- after. . They. found the Government at work on a Bill to diminish their privileges in some way which had been, or was going to be, submitted to Mr JJret*. There did not appear to be anything very terrible in contemplation. Mr Hardy made a complaint about the railway carriages on the Rolleston-Spring-field-Darfield line. He told Mr Ward that • they were not fit for dogs to live in. The Minister said that he. would like to see the superior dogp privileged to live in such excellent houses. He detailed the carriages—long first, short smoker, etc., all riding on bogies, everything spick and span. Mr Hardy marvelled at the official manner of putting -these things, and hoped that the Minister might some day come down and .travel in, those dog-kennels. The Minister smiled sweetly, and said he would be veryhappy in the sweet by-and-by. ■The faithful friend of Mount Cook asked for telephonic communication with the Hermitage, but found the Postmaster-General not quite so appreciative as he expected. It would cost £I4OO, and there would be a loss of £lO5 a year in, all probability. If the honourable and venerable Major would get the influential persons who see eye to eye with him at the great elevation of the-Her-mitage, to give the (department a guarantee against, this loss, or if he could get the local bodies or on© of them to«do so, the department would establish the connection.' .Mr Flatman asked the Minister of \ Lands whether the Government amend the regulations as contained in. the "New Zealand Gazette," No. 12, dated Feb. 4, 1897, with the object of relieving the Crown tenants of paying their rents six months in advance, provided always that such tenants shall have complied with the regulations in regard to the necessary improvements being put on their respective holdings, and, further, that all such improvements are unencumbered. Mr Duncan said : ":We cannot amend-the regulations unless the 'ConsolidationAct how before the House allows us, - but we are offering alO per cent bonus for prompt payments of .rents within .a;month." Mr, Flatman-thought that per-. haps that might do in the meantime. He ■\yas less successful with his request (under convenient cover of a question) for weekly ..market railway tickets on. market days, ■ once a week. Mr Ward, said he would not do anything until the new system of reductions has had a fair trial. For the present he is not taking any move. The Minister of Public Works was pulverised with astonishment by Mi- G. W. Russell's question: Will the Government consider the desirability of making a branch railway lino from Sockburn ; or Hornby through the Yaldhurst, West Melton and Halkett districts, all good country and well populated, to junction with the main line at Aylesbury or Kirwee? The Government had never been approached on the subject, had, in fact, never suspected the suitability of the district for railway construction. This year it was almost out of the question to think.about..it, but if the honourable member would get up subject later on there might be a prospect of business between them.

Mr EH raised a, great question, but hardly looked for so great can answer: Will the Minister of Justice take steps to put a stop to such acrobatic feats as performed by the child contortionist (Ethel) now performing in this town? The astute Mr M'Gowan .•jraated to know. Who Ethel was. Ho had

never seen any contortionist, wasn't in the habit of going about after such people. If Mr Ell had given him some sort of infoi* mation in. putting his question he might have been able to form some idea of the matter and of his responsibility in regard to ";putting a stop " to it. As at present advised, however, he'could not see /his way to interfere with outside contortionists, who, he said, from the - honourable members question were acrobats, seeing that he never interfered with those acrobats within the House who .were'-in the habit of making somersaults., ABesid-s, he was assured by the officers that \.the contortionist in question was beyond.the age of Government interferences Mr Ell was greatly displeased with the ambling wit "of the Minister. It was exceedinctlv unbecomin.?;, he said," for one in Mr M'Gowan's exalted position to refer to members hi that'flippant way. Having put on the. cap, Mr Ell proceeded to justify his political situation. He had been elected, etc., etc., and he'detailed tha whole listen of,his attitude towards the . Ministerial Salaries Bill. When he got down again, virtuously indignant, the. Minister got up to explain that he was not referring to him. "There's no doubt," shouted indignant virtue, "that you did refer to me." "No, sir," tha Minister had not; he could not have referred.for the simple reason that he had been,ignorant of.the whole of the episode the .honourable member had just so lucidly,'Explained, and there is some room for doubt as'to" whether the honourable member was'mollified by the explanation.. He was more'fortunate with Mr Ward, who told him it yrould'be useless to. pursue the subject of health reports of local bodies, as the Public Health Bill..took that duty out of. their hands and assigned it to the health officers. " : "■■■"". ."

Mr.G. W.. Russell asked the Minister for recently-introduced" system of railway fares the return "ticket si for both first and secondclass.are .increased from Christchurch, to Ad-_ dingtcii,'; Riccarton-, Papanui, Middleton, Sockburri; Hornby and Prebbleton, all in the Riccarton electorate, also to the stations at. Stvx and Belfast, in the adjoining electorate"; ('2) is he'aware that the Railway Department,-now-charges Id extra over and above.' the';mileage charge for every ordinary single, f'a'gd 2d'over, the mileage charge .for every ordinary return ticket issued throughout the entire colony;'- (3). seeing, that -the Department now issues return tickets from Invercargill to the Bluff for 2s 6d first-class and Is 6d second, a distance of seventeen miles, will he consider the desirability of still further reducing the fares between Christchurch and Lyttelton, a distance of seven miles, which are now Is 6d and/ Is, especially seeing that the bookings- at Lyt.telton are seven times and a half as numerous as thosje at the Bluff ? The answer was voluminous, and in some respects tremendous. It seemed as if the. Minister would never stop reciting the detail of the various calculations, operations, references, crossreferences and re-cross-references of the comparisons, inquiries and suggestions, of the hundred things to be considered in connection with all classes of tickets, from a- mile suburban single to a tourist's special, with side glances (at season and commercial and newspaper concessions, all of which matters are comprehended in the operations of altering a railway passenger tariff. Why, sir, there are, said the Flying Dutchman of debate, as he rushed through his astounding mass of detail, 700 stations, with an average of 30 communications, which gives 126,000 fares to calculate. It was surprising to him that so few errors had taken place, and-al-ready, .before the honourable gentleman had asked his question, the "Gazette" had cor-rected'them-all. ' "He : heartily complimented "all the officers concerned on' this, great result of their patience, accuracy and cheerfulness under a tremendous ordeal. Moreover, the ■ honourable member must bear in mind that' the old tariff was in many ways anomalous, and the corrections on the new were, therefore, not anomalies. As to the third question, he denounced the principle- of it as utterly bad and rotten in every way, and' explained the system adopted in a few words, the rapidity of which cannot be overtaken until the book of " Hansard " appears. The first month of the new regula- , tions,, Mr Ward took the opportunity to say, had turned out very well, -with the result of 46,000 more passengers than were ever, carried before in the game period, at not' more than £6OO of increased cost, ■ whereat the House gave a.mild cheer or ■two..

Mr Russell did not let the matter pass without pointing out-that he gave notice of his question on July -31, whereas the correction of "the anomalies was not gazetted till August 2. After drawing so lartre a blank- it was hard for the member for Riccarton- to draw "another, and in bis own constituency again. The Minister said that he cannot consider the desirability of erecting a loading platform at Middleton station, as there is no suitable land available. . THE EVENING SITTING. 'The evening began' in the House with "wild cats," which were quickly disposed of by the second reading of the Companies Bill, suppressing traffic, in promoters' shares for three years, wherein the lead of the Council was followed. Then the House settled down- to wild ducks and other delicacies of the season. There was a dispute about the season, it appeared, and until that could be cleared the Bill stuck amongst the intricacies of the game laws. Among the many disputed questipns there was a general agreement that certain freezing companies keep native game in their cold rooms all the year round, and that the practice ought to be<-stopped. The rabbit pest and the poisoning laws made for its suppression were the subject of much .denunciation. "We are obliged by law to lay poison," said'Mr M'Nab. "Pheasants, partridges, quail, and. everything of feather and fur disappeared' of course, until there ia nothing left to shoot at or talk about, and then we talk about preserving game." The 'member for Waihemo talked pleasantly about the; denizens of our forests and th. inhabitants-of our swamp;, had a good word for the useful kaka and the easily murdered pigeon, and championed the much abused weka. ; Others entered pleas for the kiwi, and sanctuary Was the cry, one member going so'far "as to recommend that the whole of the,west coast of the South Island, from, Milford Sound southwards, should be made a big sanctuary. •' The Cockney,sportsman and the exclusive gun club gentleman came in equally for scathing criticism. As for the idiocy of the head of the department who authorised the letting loose of sfrcats'and weasels in the fiord country and thereabouts for the extermination of rabbits, which never would go there, and the benefit of the stock which never could—words failed to picture dt, but .they tried hard. As for the result, it was only too clear the native game of that fascinating .wild' region" had' been practically obliterated by these pests. As to the damage they had done elsewhere to the domestic hen-roost, it was beyond the power of computation, but apparently,' if all s-lories are true-, still within the reach of profanity. We heard much of the .ingenuity of some Southland officials who persisted .in trying to. spread-chicken cholera amcng .ther.abbits of a district in which canning factories were nourishing at that moment, and busy preparations were'afloat for a. large export, of frozen rodents. We heard as much, if not more, of the iniquities cf those who sought by supporting measures such as this Animals Protection Bill to debar the people from enjoying any kind of sport, especially in the Napier district, and this brought the retort from Captain Russell that if a man owned an acre of land anywhere, he was anathema, and'if ..'he >cwced it in Hawke's Bay he was beyond redemption. It was the annual picnic of fur and feather and venninntion,'with red fallow deer occasionally thrown in, and it went on till midnight. . At midnight, however, the reason -appeared for. this excursion among the ferae naturae. The Slaughter-house Bill was ready, and so were the experts under the Minister's eye, which, the Bills being heavily rpposed, wculd.have meant an- all-night sitting. The House preferred midnight and fur and feather.