LATEST WELLINGTON NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5757, 30 April 1880, Page 5

LATEST WELLINGTON NEWS.

[by telegraph, from, our wbcial CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Thursday. MINISTERS. Mr. Oliver returned last night, and will probably now remain in Wellington until the session. Major Atkinson has been indisposed, but not seriously. He is expected in a day or two. Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Bryce were unable to leave Mannkau till to-day, and will moßt likely reach Wellington to-

MINISTERIAL MEASURES.

The Ministerial measures are still in active preparation, some twenty or thirty Bills being in the printer's hands. These include several consolidated bills recommended by the Commission on the statutes, and some which were not carried through last session for want of time. These latter include Regulation of Elections, Election Petitions, and Corrupt Practices Bills. I hear the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Bill of last session will be introduced in a slightly amended form, as suggested by the experience of the past few months, and the altered circumstances of the colony. This measure is understood to be now under the careful consideration of the Cabinet. I understand also that a new Licensing Bill is in preparation, a very balky affair of some 230 clauses. No exact provisions have yet transpired, but I hear, on good authority, that the principle of local option will be applied to new licenses only, and not to old ones, so as to avoid interference with vested rights and interests on the one hand, and escaping the compensation difficulty on the other. It is reported also that a new Representation Bill is being prepared, providing for the re-adjustment of the representation, not re-distributing on the sole basis of population, but taking into consideration various circumstances inseparably associated with the question of just representation. I am told tsat copious returns of population, &c , are under compilation for the purposes of this measure, with the view of rendering it as far as possible complete, although of course it is sot supposed, or hopei, that every one can be satisfied, ROAD-MAKING IN TE WHITI'S TERRITORY. Latest telegrams from the Waimate Plains record the steady progress of road-making, which, has now been carried quietly and unostentatiously more than a quarter of a-mile into Te Whiti's special Parihaka territory. The camp is not yet moved, and merely road lines have been cut, so as to bring about as speedily as possible the meeting of roads, which Te Whiti was reported to have said would never take place. His followers now deny that he ever said those words.