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New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 4, 20 November 1863, Page 4

TntriisDAY, November 19th

Yesterday, in the House of Representatives, the Auckland Harbour Debenture Bill was read a second, and the Auckland and Drury Raihvav Bill was read a first time. A report from tlie private grievance committee was brought up. v Mr. Domett gave notice that he should move this day (Friday), that the seat of Government

should be moved to Cook's Straits, and that n commission should be appointed to determine at which of the settlements it should be so located. In. answer to Major Richardson 8 question, whether the Ministry were cognizant, of the dispatch of letter No. 1, E 2, of the 24tli of April, 1863. from His Excellency Sir George Grey to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, on the subject of the Waitara purchase ; and if they were, whether there is any memorandum by Ministers on the subject. The hon. Mr. Fox stated that it was not one within the knowledge of the present Ministry. Mr. Domett stated that he was able to answer the question, but the eticjuette to be observed between a Governor and his Ministry precluded him from doing so without His Excellency s permission. The House could, he thought, draw its own conclusions from the printed papers. The hon. Mr. Fox, in moving the following resolution —That on the arrival of Her Majesty's ship ' Himalaya,' with the 60th regiment, this House desires to express its sincere acknowledgment to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Duke of Newcastle, for the promptitude with which lie has caused such efficient aid to be afforded to the Colony in its need. That this resolution be transmitted to His Excellency the Governor, with a request that he will be pleased to forward the same to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, said that he had no doubt that tliis measure would meet with the unqualified consent of the House, which the interest felt in the welfare of the Colony by Her Majesty's Government demanded. The motion was unanimously agreed to. Mr. Cracroft Wilson moved for leave to bring in a bill for the amendment of the " Regulation of Elections Act, 1858," which was granted. The bill was then brought up and Tread a first time, and ordered to be read a second time tomorrow. .T Mr. Togel moved for a return up to present date of all liabilities due by the Government on advances received from the Commissariat, or from any bank or banks, together with the agreements (if any) on which such advances have been made. He wished to know whence the £2(30.000 already expended on the war has been obtained. He thought that the Government shoidd supply these statements to the House unasked. The Colonial Treasurer laid the return upon the table, and stated that it would have been furnished sooner had not the matter slipped his memory. Mr. Yogel also moved " That in the opinion of this House, it is desirable there should be another meeting of the Assembly within the next ten months," —stating that he had named a period of ten months as he thought it was desirable to hold a session once in each year, and in the present position of the country even oft-ener. The House itself must be dissolved in November, 1805, and it was therefore inadvisable to postpone the jest meeting of the House to March, 180-5 as asked by ministers. Mr. Reynolds trusted that the Government would at once acccpt the proposition, which carefully guarded against preventing an earlier meeting of the General Assembly. Mr. Fox stated that the Government could not for two reasons accept this proposal; firstly, because it had under taken a great practical experiment, the crushing of the rebellion, tuiJ-irnsKo" o'" which. might be far distant, and it was not therefore advisable time the time of the Ministers should be diverted from the daily necessity of the work before it, and secondly, on account of the inconvenient season at which the session would be brought about, a time of year most inconvenient to Southern members. Messrs. Harrison and O'Neill were in favour of the motion. Mr. Colenso opposed, alluding to the misery which would be occasioned to the Northern members if they should have to travel Southward iu any but the summer season. Mr. Brodie thought there were many and varied reasons, financial and otherwise, wliy the House should meet once a year. Mr. .Toilie would be sorry to see the House fix itself to any particular time at which they shoidd be reassembled. Mr. Patterson would be sorry to embarass the Government in the undertaking before them of crushing the rebellion—but there were other more important questions (as he thought) than that of war. Mr. Gillies on the part of the Government felt that there were general matters which required great attention, and averred that never in any ease where members had explained the necessities of any portion of the country, or interested themselves in drawing attention to these wants, had the Ministry neglected to pay every attention to the matter. Mr. Cargilf thought that stated intervals for the meeting of the Assembly should be appointed. Mr. Stafford thought that if there was to be an early session, that session must be held in Auckland. If the session were held elsewhere then a longer time than that mentioned in the motion must be allowed at the discretion of the Ministry. He was not an advocate for holding the session on the coming occasion elsewhere than in Auckland—and he had no sympathy with those who sought to rcI move the Seat of Government from Auckland, though he was able to-*«>par&t« that question from the one ct holding the session of the Assembly in other places in ordinary times. Mr. FitzGcrald supported the motion on the ground that as he and others were under the

" Suppression of Rebellion Act," liable to imprisonment for the encouragement given by their utterances to the. rebels, he was anxious that that, period over w'Jcll the bill was to run should be as short as possible. Mr. Domett thought thaino possible contingency could happen to cause it to be necessary to call the House together before fifteen months, especially as it would be impossible for the Government to get through the money voted for the war before that-period came round. The hon. Mr. Wood showed that it was with a view to hold the next session of the House somewhere in the South that- so loug a time was asked, and contending that March was a more convenient season both for members personally, and for tlie business of the country. Air. Vogel having replied, the amendment of Mr. Fox was carried—" That it is advissable that the next- session of the Assembly shall be held as soon as the state of the colony permit, and not later than March, 1865. The Hen. Mr. Gillies obtained leave to bring in u bill for the better apprehension of offenders who shall have escaped to ports within the Colony of New Zealand, from any other of the Australian Colonies. The bill was brought up. r<:ad a first, time, and ordered to be read a second time to-morrow, (Friday.) On the motion of Major Richardson, tlie Report of the Representative Committee was adopted. Major Richardson obtained leave to bring in a bill* to make further provision for the Representation of the people of New Zealand m the General Assembly, which was also granted to this member. A discussion arose as to one clause in the bill giving two representatives to the natives. Mr. J. C. Richmond thought these members should not be necessarily of the European race. Mr. Brodie thought it simply ridiculous to give these representatives to the natives as a class. Mr. Stafford defended the clause —retorting upon Mr. Brodie that his constituents, the miners, were as a special class represented just as unconstitutionally as he Mr. Brodie was now complaining the Maoris would be.' Mr. Stafford drew comparison between the natives and the miners as useful colonists, highly favourable to the former, and was glad that the House had, so soon after receiving the management of native a flairs, taking this" very proper step in the advancement: ot their interests. He thought that the words "representatives of European deseeni" ought to be modified. Natives whether great or minor chiefs elected to this House would be of no value .to their constituents, he would rather see men like the members for Wallace, gentle-

men intimately connected with Maoris, returned to represent the native race. Mr. O'Neill supported the view of giving the natives the representation proposed, even though they had so ungratefully repaid all our kindness, nnd our lavish expenditure upon them. He thought that the Maoris were far more entitled to representation than the gold miners. Mr. Cok-nso id not understand the question at all. Mr. "Eox submitted that the present was not the proper timo to discuss the merits of the bill. Mr. Harrison's motion for a, copy of coireapondence with reference to the last rifle prizefiring so far as may concern Nelson and Wanganui. was agreed to. The lion. Mr. Russell stated that ho was not aware of such a correspondeuce. If it did exist there would be no objection whatever to produce it. Mr. Butler, in moving that there be laid on the table of this House, copies of all correspon. dencc between the Government and the Resident Magistrate of' Mongonui and others, relative to the proceedings of Pirimona, a Maori minister, now travelling in the Northern parts of this Province, staled that he did so because he believed that the person mentioned had busied himself in attempting to stir the natives in the North into rebellion. Mr.- Fox said that the attention of the Government had been drawn to the matter that Pirimona had been for some time past circulating extremely false • reports concerning the progress of the war, and iu exciting them to sympathy with Waikato. He was cross-examined by the Resident Magistrates, an so important a matter did it seem to the Ministry, that they laid it before His Excellency, who applied to the Bishop, who at once took steps to remove Pirimona. Mr. Ormond obtained leave to bring in a bill to set aside certain lands as collateral security to the public creditor under the Loan Act, session 0, No. 1, of the Province of Hawke's Bay. The bill was read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time to-morrow. Mr. J. C. Richmond moved that the Nelson "Waste Lands Registration Bill be committed, and it it was accordingly considered in committee. The House, on resuming at seven o'clock, proceeded to the discussion of the Loan Bill in committee. Iu clause 7, the words " General Assembly" were substituted for that of " Governor." l)r. Monro objected to the fusing together ill one act a bill for raising money and another for appropriating, as he thought, two distinct operations. He had looked over many loan bills of the House of Commons, and he found that these two operations were always carried out by two distinct acts. He would wish to take out all the appropriating clauses, and would therefore move the striking out of all the words in clause 7 after the word " direct." If this were done, and the schedule also excised, then the bill would ha what it ought to be, simply a Loan Bill. Mr. Stafford cordially agreed, with all that had fallen from the Speaker (I)r. Munro). The Colonial Treasurer believed that the precedent of future sessions had been followed on the present occasion. Mr. Yogel would s:upport the clause as it stood, floundered through a lonp speech, and was finally set right by Mr. Stafford, who challenged him to quote the names of Colonies where such methods of procedure as the present one were, as he had stated, followed, Mr. Gillies entered into a defence of the course taken by the Government. The amendment of Dr. Munro was Gen put and lost, after which Mr. Stafford moved as n,n amendment that tho whole clause be struck out, which was carried ou a division. In clause S the Coloninl Treasurer moved that, the words " fifty years" be struck out, and replaced by the words "of such time," thus enabling tha country to repay the loau at a shorter period ii' it can. Mr. Bell then drew attention to the report of a speech which appeared in the papers as delivered in the Legislative Council, in which it was stated on authority that no part of the money raised by sal? of confiscated land would be made use of to recoup the loan, and was glad to hear tho Colonial Treasurer (which lie had done) state that such was not the case. The Colonial Secretary also vouched for the inaccuracy of this statement if it had really been made, and was not a mistake of the papers. Mr. Yogel proposed as an amendment, " that the loan ba issued for 30 "vcars, and that after 10 years the Government shall be able to withdraw it on 3 years' notice." Mr. Cargill thought that 20years was a better period to fix. The Colonial Treasurer explained that the shorter the period the larger must be the sinking fund. Both amendments were put and negatived, nnd the clause was carried as printed. Mr. Fitzgerald opposed the sehedtde or apportionment of the loan ; he would give the money in a lump, and let the Government make the most of it. £2,000,(XX) would, he thought, be sufficient. The schedule was altered, the words " apportionment of loan" being omitted, and other amendment s made, and the bill was committed and reported.