Parliamentary Jottings.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1228, 29 July 1881, Page 3

Parliamentary Jottings.

The following return laid on the tal>ie of tho Council—shows the names of all the officers wno have entered the Civil Service since Bth October, 1866, who at the date of their admission were more thftn 20 years of age ; the date of each admission, ages and salaries at such date and present Balary ; also the number of appointments made by the Governor under the "Civil Service Act, 1860. The number of the appointments isColonial Secretary's Department, 66 ; Audit, 16; Treasury, 26 ; Native Land Purchase, 44 : Public Trust, 2; Education, 5 ; Government Insurance, 14 ; Crown Lands, 53; Immigration, 15; Mines and Survey, 109; Justice, SO ; A.C. Officers, 7 ; Defence, 3 ; Registrar-General's, 12; Architect's and Stamps, 34; Customs, 49; Marine, 16; Geological and Lunatics, 17 ; and Property Tax, 21. Another return shows the number of Government Life Insurance polices taken out by members of the Civil Service which have lapsed during the past two years, the amount which had been insured by each policy lapsed or cancelled, and the reason (if any) why each policy had lapsed or been cancelled during the period named. In all I*9 policies have lapsed or discontinued ; in 73 cases no reason has been given for the discontinuance ; 62 persons had left the service, and in 44 instances reduction in pay is the reason assigned; three policies are void, customary conditions. A note supplied to the end of the return is as follows " The total number of policies of the class to which this motion refers is about 93. Of these, i 9 have been discontinued during the period embraced by the return." In the Lower House p. return tabled shows the number of convicts in the various gaols of the Colony employed at trades, and the various kinds of skilled and unskilled labour. The value of the prisoners' work is calculated at 4s per diem for ■killed and 3s per diom for unskilled labour, except in the case of the printers in the Lyltelton Gaol, where the Government printer's valuation is adopted. The Pension Bill introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr Shrimski, is a short measure containing only nine clauses. Itprovides that, from and after the passing of the Act, no pension, auperanuation or other annual allowance shall be granted or paid to any person retiring from the public service of New Zealand, except under its provisions ; that no pension or allowance shall be paid without the knowledge of the Genoral Assembly ; that no pension or allowance shall be paid unless and until the proposal shall have been notified to the Assembly in Parliament assembled ; that a report on the proposed pension or allowance shall be placed before the General Assembly, and that no action shall be taken to grant such pension or allowance until the end of the session on which such report is presented, forbid the granting of any such pension or allowance ; that persons in receipt of pensions re-eutering the public service shall receive a salary less the amount of their pension ; that from the date of the passing of the Act, no person who shall become entitled to any pension, superannuation or retiring allowance, payable out of colonial revenue, shall be eligible to sit in the Ceneral Assembly of New Zealand. Clause nine repeals every law now in force in the colony having reference to the granting of pensions, superannuation allowances, or retiring allowances. " The Roads Construction Bill" one of the Ministerial measures provides for the constitution in Wellington of a body to have the disposal of £300,000 annually, for public works purposes. It sets forth that the Board shall consist of tour persons, one to be ex ojjicio the Minister for Public Works, three to be elected by the House of Representatives under the direction of the Speaker, by ballot. The three members of the Board thus elected hold office from one session of Parliament to another. The Board is made a corporate body, having the power to elect a Chairman and make by-laws. Such by-laws have to be approved by the Colonial Treasurer before they come ini-o operation. £150,000 of the loan of 1879 is to be credited to the Board for the main roads account and a similar sum to be paid to the same account from the Land Fund ) provided there remains any surplus after defraying the expense of the surveys and administration of Crown lands. For district roads £IOO,OOO is to be advanced to the Board from the loan of 1879, and and equal sum may be borrowed by the Board foithe same purpose from the Post Office Annuities or Pablic Debts and Sinking Funds. When I add (says the Lyttdton Time* correspondent) that it is contemplated to pay each of the three Commissioners, other than the Minister for Public Works, a handsome salary—£looo per annum it is rumored —the object of the Bill may be very well imagined. It is simply a bold bid for support. Mr Hirst has given notice for the following motion " That with a view to securing the raost advantageous use of the pastoral lands of Otago, of which the leases fall in during the year 18S2 and fthe following years, these lands should be surveyed into suitable areas as sheep farms, to be let on fixed leases, and that plans and descriptive particulars should be prepared in good time, and every reasonable means taken by the Government to insure proper publicity in the United Kingdom, as well as in the Colonies of Australia and New Zealand." The Rabbit Pest. The following report was brought up and read in the House on Friday. " Your Committee has conferred with a Committee of the Legislative Council appointed for a similar purpose, and, acting as a joint Committee with it, has taken the evidence of a number of individuals, and obtained by circular expressions of opinion from a large number of others, all of which is appointed ; and has also agreed with the Committee of the Legislative Council in the following report " Your Committee having, in concert with a Committee of the Legislative Council, obtained a great amount of information on the subject of the rabbit nuisance from many persons and from various parts of the Colony, has agreed that a measure calculated to deal more effectively with the nuisance is urgently required, and therefore recommends that a bill be introduced this session to deal with the question, which shall provide that its administration shall be conducted by officers of the Government on a principle similar to that by which the provisions of "The Sheep Act, 1878," are enforced ; and that all unoccupied Crown lands, also Native and reserved lands, as well as private lands, should bear their proportionate share of the cost of destroying rabbits and the expenses of administering the Act; and that provision should be made therein for the protection of the natural enemies of the rabbit at present in the Colony. The Committee desires to impress upon the House its conviction that immediate and energetic action is essential in order to arrest the further extension of and to suppress this pest, otherwise the result will be ruinous. *'Georoe Beetham, Chairman.