PARLIAMENTRY ITEMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 193, 16 August 1890, Page 2

PARLIAMENTRY ITEMS.

(From our own Correspondent.)

Wellington, August 15,

The Colonial Secretary has presented to the House a letter from the Auditor- General in reference to the reduction of the audit offieo vote. In it Mr Fitzgerald expresses regret that lie is unable to comply with the request that he should advise how the smaller vote could bo distributed, without further infor* mation as to the wishes of the Government. The reduction of £950 in the vote means the dismissal of three or four clerks aud the discontinuance of a large part of the audit service. Further, he points out that the office has duties of control, as distinguished from audit, which are imp .sod by statue and so must be carried out, so that the only way of curtailing the cost of the Department is by giving up in a great measure the audit of the revenue aeoounts, and dispenvp? wih'^ the staff engaged ot it. Ad he doeo not think that that was the wish of Parliament he request LluiL tae whole question of the work and management of the Depart* ment may be made the subject of enquiry before a Parliamentary Committee or a Royal Commission. Statistics are given to show that the cost of the Department is less than that of the Audit Department, and is the means of recovering considerable sums to the public chest, so much so that in some years it has not cost the oolony a farthing, In discussing the contents of the letter, Mr Kerr said he had been told by people who ought to know that the Audit oilioa was worthless, therefore he hoped, the Commission asked for would be set up, in order to sco whether or not the Department was properly conducted. Mr Downie Stewart thought the letter showed how utterly inoompsteut the House was to go into the details of the departmental affairs. The Speaker reminded members that the proceedings of the Committee of Supply were not open to critioißm by the House, whereupon the sab jeot was dropped and the letter was ordered to lie on the table.

In Sir John Hall, the advocates of women's rights have a persistent champion. He is now introducing a Bill to confer the electorate franchise on females.

I hear that in the proposals made for bringing the session to an early olose, Mr Bryce acted as mediator between the Opposition loaier and the Government, The written proposals submitted by the Hon, Mr Ballance provide that the new Parliament shall be summoned by April 10th, and, to insure this pledge being carried out, a olause is to be inserted in the Appropriation Act that the Public Revenues Act shall not apply after March 31st next. The Cabinet, I understand, meet to morrow to consider the pro* position. The Hon. Mr Ballanoe called attention in the House this afternoon to the strictures on the New Zealand Rifle Association, passed by Lieut Col. Hume in his report, and asked the Defence Minister to state when Col. Hume attended a meeting of the Rifle Association, and in its camp saw slovenlymen, or if the aspersions were made on the strength of another person's report, and if so waa there any reason why the terms and author ship of that report should not be disclosed. Mr Ballance said he was assured by the volunteers, and by tho Secretary of the Association that the statement waa a slander. The Defence Minister did not think it was proper on a mere statement of a volunteer, or even of bhe Secretary of the Association, to condemn the Inspector's report as slanderous. It waa the duty of certain officials to report what they thought and saw, and even what they heard, to the heada of their Department and Col. Hume was one of them. Col. Hume had not attended any of the Associations camps, and he had only applied the words " slovenly men " to camps in. general, and not to the New Zealand Rifle camps, (The Hou. Mr Ballanoo : But he connects the two.) Colonel Hume's report was formed, to a very great extent, upon the Association's regulations, which showed that Volunteers were allowed to shoot in plsin clothes, which he (the Minister) agreed was not a good thing. Besides, the fact that there was a violent altercation between the officers in the presence of men was quite notorious, and had been stated in the newspapers..'.^ It was not to the credit of the Association that such things should be allowed, and the Inspecting Officer of Volunteers only did his duty in bringing them under the notice of the head of his Depart" ment.

Fresh sympathy with the much agitated grievance of G. W. Ell, of Christchurch, was awakened in the House to-day by new light being thrown upon an extraordinary yihme of the case. Mr Verrall brought the subject up by asking 1 whether the Government will cause Mr C. C. Graham to report whether any of the serious charges made by Mr Ell against the Christchurch officers were true. The Minister of Justice said the Courts of the colony wero still open to Mr EH, but it was to be feared that no amount of enquiry would satisfy him. Mr Verrall moved the adjournment of the House, and advocated that a public enquiry be held, Mr Seymour, as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, made the startling statement that, in the course of the investi gations of the Committee, it was proved that Mr Ell had borrowed £216 from a Mr Nathan now deceased, but twi signed an arrangement under which he gave promissory notes for double the amount for every 3 months after the first 3 months. Fifty per cent interest was charged, and in this way, the original debt of £216 mounted up to £5128. Upon hearing this, several members urged that another enquiry should be held. Mr Smith described the case as one of the grossest usury, such as he had no idea had reached New Zealand. The Minister of Justice said he would be willing to grant another euquiry if he thought it would do any good, but if Providence blessed Mr Ell with three score years and teu he would still want another enquiry in his seventyfirst year. In any case the Courts were still open to Mr Ell. Sir George Grey said that he had been told by a lawyer that Mr Ell's bankruptcy barred an appeal to the Courts After some further discu-sion the motion for tha adjournment was lost.

That sonao reform in our preseut system of party government is required has long- been admitted, and Major Steward has conceived the idea that the cure lies in an Executive elected from the House who shall hold office during the duration of the Parliament. Having 1 been unable to get a special sitting on Monday night last to consider the question, his supporters decided to get the matter discussed by way of amendment to Supply. Accordingly this evening Dr Hodgkinsou moved that a Committee be appointed to consider and report as to the possibility of devising- a system of appointing an Executive G oyorament such as may be free from the evils of the present system, to report in a fortnight, such committee to consist o£ Messrs Sounders, Tanuer, Hodg kinson, Samuel, Verrall, O'Conor, Monk, Newman, the lion. (Japtain Russell, and the mover. The hon gentleman indulgd in an essay on constitutional history whioh had the effect of clearing the Chamber, and there was a bare quorum present through the after discussion. Major yteward, in the course of a oapital spseeh, referred to the ridioule oast on every proposal for reform, and said that though those with him in the present movement were in a minority, the time would oome when some change in the form of Government must be | made -viih a view to putting au end to the bitter party fights of the present day. What he wished to see was a (Jovernnient eleoted i;y a b-.Slot of the House. The disoussion was continuod for about threa hours. Besides those already named, Messrs Ward, o 'Conor, Saundeis, and Sir John Hall, apoke in favour of the amendment, and Mr Harknesa Dr Newman and Mr Taylor against it. The general tenor of the remarks was that some change in the present system was desirable, and that the matter should be freely ventilated during the recess. Eventually the amendment was defeated by 27 to 25.

The Legislative Council, on the Hon. Mr Shrimski's motion, disagreed with the amendments made by the House in the Coroner's Inquests Bill, and appointed a Committee to draw up reasons for disagree* iug. When the Railway Rates Committee report was was submitted this afternoon, a strong protest was made by the Auckland members against its terms, seeing that the Committee had not given Mr Vaile an opportunity of beiug heard. Mr Thompson moved that the report be refeired back tw tne Coinniiiiiee witn a view fco reconsidering the matter aud iiukiuy- iuruhev evidence, but after a long discussion the motion, was lose

by 41 to 24, and the report; was merely ordered to lie on the table.

Most of today's sitting in the Legislative Oounoil was oooupied witU the Bible Beading in Schools Bill. It is purely a permissive measure, and the Hon. J. B. Aoland, who has oharfTo of it, said that as education was «t pre?ent administered, the youths of New Zealand were being brought up to deßpise the colony. He admired hia Boman Catholio fellow co lonian who, rather than that the Bible should uod be ?gic! ia Uieh- aobolg, look upon lucinselvHii th:) burdt ■> of mai fc.ining those e.auoati. ual v; > blishj-; ntr. The ;ion. Mr (nataa omi.ied, n*id the Biii Wca really one to amend the Education Aos, which had recommended itself to the people of tne colony as bring secular, bat the Bill now under consideration destroyed the fundamen. tal principles of the Act. He hoped that next session an amended Bill would be brought down by which the cost of education would be borne looally, He for one considered that there were many passages in the Bible which were not fit to be placed before the young, but, believing, as he did, that the Legislature were not fitted to decide what paasagea should, or should not, be read in publio soboolß, be moved that the question be now put.— Sir George Whitmore was one of tboße who believed tbat the child should learn tbe elements of religion and the lessons of the Bible at its mother's knee, He did not entertain the idea that much good could result from the rapid reading over by a school teacher of a short passage of the Bible every night or morning, While entertaining the greatest re« tipeofc for religious masters, he felt that if the Bill were passed it would have the effect of creating denominational bad feeling.— A long discussion ensued, in which the Hons, H. J. Miller, J. Shephard, J. W. Barnicoat, W. H. Reynolds, H. Williams, and R. Harfe spoke in favour of the second reading, while the Hons 13. Shrimski, Dr Grace, W. Reeves, and R. Pharazyn spoke in opposition to the Bill. On the Hon. VV. B. D. Mantell'a motion, the adjournment of the debate till Tivsdiy was then agreed to.

x.io Government have no intention of legislating this session in reference to the codlin moth and infected fruit.

Ministers have been urged to appoint a competent Artillery officer to instruct and examine Artillery offioers. They hare, however, already a gentleman in their service with high English credentials whom they consider capable of doing such work, especially as Major-General Edwards highly commended his qualifications.

The acting Premier has undertaken to favourably consider Mr Monk'B request that they should furnish the House with regular returns ox thy expenditure of the large sums of money which appear on the Esti» mates under the vaguo reading of •' Contingencies,"