PARLIAMENTARY NEWS AND GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6483, 28 August 1882, Page 5

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS AND GOSSIP.

[BT TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] • . i ; . Wellington', Sunday, i . CABINET COUNCIL. : A Cabinet Council was held yesterday, at which all the Ministers were present. The mail question again came hp for consider: ation, and was discussed at length. This matter haa been a troublesome one, and has absorbed a great deal of the ticne of the Government. A number of - departmental questions requiring the attention of the Cabinet were brought np by the Ministers in charge of the various departments ar.d were dealt with. THE END OF THE SESSION. The Government anticipate having the work which they are determined to go through ■ this seEsion finished by the end of this week, as it is unlikely that members will stay beyond next week. The prorogation will take place about Thursday or Friday week. The estimates will be passed through committee this week, and the supplementary estimates brought down. Major Atkinson is expected to-morrow (Tueaday) to make a statement as to the Bills the Government will go on with, and the Bills that will be dropped. THE LAND BILL.

The Land Bill and two other Bills in charge of Mr. Rolleston wero committed on Friday afternoon, but the Lands Bill itself was not committed till half-past eight on Friday night, and it occupied the committee from that hour till half-past four on Saturday morning. There was a pretty full House early in the evening, but as it grew late, very many hon. members after pairing went to their lodgings and left the Bill to its fate. The Bill was reported to the House with amendments at half-past four yesterday morning. Mr. Rolleston fixed to-morrow for tho third reading, when the Bill will be sent to the Legislative Council. Although the Waste Lands Committee made a few important alterations in the measure, it is well known that the main amendments were made by Mr.Rolleston himself, who is a member of the committee. The amendments made by the committee, other than those proposed by Mr. Rolleston, were .very slight. When the House went into committee of the whole on the Bill, the Minister of Lands begged the committee not to occupy more time than was necessary in discussing the provisions of the measure, which had been fully debated on previous occasions. He assured the committee that he had the Bill very much at heart, and expressed a hope that they would go in for quick voting oh all the proposed amendments, as he would like to see the Bill carried this session. Clause 1 was passed without discussion. On clause 2, providing that rural lands be set apart for leasing, Mr. Fulton moved the insertion of words limiting the operation of the leasing principle to proclaimed goldfields. In this he was warmly supported by Sir John Hall and others, and after a great deal of discussion the amendment was negatived on the voices. Sir George Grey next moved in the same clause the addition of the following words : —" On and after the passing of this Act all rural lands shall bo disposed of by the Government under the system of leasing defined herein." lurther discussion ensued, and before Sir George Grey's amendment had been disposed of, Mr. Moss moved another amendment, viz., to Btrike out of the clause certain words which affirmed the leasing principle. Mr. Moss's amendment was put to the committee after the supper adjournment, and negatived by 45 to 16. Sir George Grey's amendment was next put to tho vote, and lost by 49 to 13. It was next proposed that the following proviso should be added at the instance of the Waste Lands Committee "Provided that there shall never be epen for leasing under this Act at any one time iu any one district an area greater than one-third of the area of agricultural land then open for sale in such district." This was carried by 45 to IS. Mr. Stevens afterwards proposed to strike cut of the clause the following words:—"Any such proclamation may. be at any time revoked in whole, or in part, aud either the whole or any part of said land thereafter dealt with, as if they had never been so proclaimed." This also was negatived, and the clause as amended was passed. Several amendments were moved to the clause "Leases put up to tender at upset rental," regarding which an hour's discussion took place. Ultimately the clause was passed as printed, after which clauses 4 to 20, inclusive, were agreed to, and clauses 21 and 22 struck out. Clauses 23 to 5G were also passed in the form recommended by the Waste Lands Committee, and the remaining clauses were got through without any amendment materially affecting the principles of the Bill. The following proviso, which has been drafted by the Waste Lands Committee, was, on the motion of Mr. Mitchelson, inserted, viz. :—"Provided, however, that all timber leasesi shall contain a provision to tho effect that young marketable timber trees, not fewer in number than the trees felled by the lessee, shall be properly planted on the area under license." The area which can be leased for sawmills was extended. The proposal to extend the Hawke's Bay land district np to the East Cape was negatived, and struck out of the Bill. It was agreed that the regulations in force in the Auckland district should extend to Hawke's Bay, so that the evils of two systems applying to laud of equal' quality, and only divided by an imaginary line, will, if the Bill become law, be removed. At present land on one Bide of this imaginary line can only be sold at £1 an acre, while land contiguous, of equal quality, is sold at 5s or 10s an acre. The Waste Lands Board question, a vexed one, ia not really interfered with by the Bill this year. A Southern member is expected to move for the recommittal of the Bill, for the purpose of inserting a proviso preventing persons holding more than a certain quantity of pastoral land, so as to affect very large holders, while in committee a strong attempt was made to introduce the ballot system in place of the tender system.' The following was the division on the leasine clause of the Bill: —Ayes, 45 : Atkinson, Bathgate, Bryce, Buchanan, J. Cadman, Conolly, DoLautour, Dick, Duncan, Fergus, George, J. Green, M. W. Green, Harris, Hobbs, Holmes, Hurst, Hursthouse, Hutchison, W, W. Johnston, Kelly, F. W. Mackenzie, J. Mclvcnzie, McMillan, Mitchelson, Morris, Monro, Peacock, Pearson, Postletliwaite, P'yke, Rolleston, Rutherford, Shephard, Shrimski, Smith, Stevens, Sutter, Swanson, J. W. Thomson, Trimble, W. White, J. B. Whyte, Williams. Noes, IS: Fcldwiek, Fish, Fulton, Hall, C. J. Johnston, Joyce, Macandrew, Montgomery, Moss, Seaton, Seddou, Sheehan, Turnbull, Watt, Weston, Wright.

[BY" THI.iECItA.PH.' —OWN CORRESPONDENT. J Wellington, Sunday.

SCAMPING THE WORK. It is still supposed that' Parliament will prorogue some day next week, some say on Tuesday or Wednesday, and others on Friday, but there is a general consensus of opinion that the prorogation will take place between the fourth and ninth of September. There is a small minority of memberrwho are strongly opposed to "scamping* tho business in this way, it being obviously impossible to do more than look at most of the

session's work, -which has-been eo long trifled with and' shuffled off from day to and week to' week. ; It is pointed out by these -membera-that-"the daration of the session has not yet nearly reached the average of ,the last eight or ten years, and; that a five, months' session is even mora necessary now in view of the vast accumulation of arrears'of worlr which'has to be cleared off than it was in the'two successive years pome time back when sessions lasted that time. Jtiey urge that at least the Binkruptcy Bill, Local. : Government Bills, and all the Consolidation Bills ought to be passed before Parliament prorogues, but as eveh' the Land and Loan Bills are not yet thnwh, and have to be finished this week, it is as yet thought there is not the remotest prospect of the measures just' mentioned bcin" touched unless members will consent ! to go on a week or two longer. I fear,' how r ever, that the majority are too ' anxious to draw the balancu of the honorarium and be off. aud that Government will not be very sorry to see their backs.* p Ti'E RUMOURED MINISTERIAL CHANGES., . There is a rumour afloat which-seem3 to increase in strength daily, to the'effect that there is a chance of the Ministerial Vacancy being filled early in the recess by Sir John Hall re-joining his old colleagues, not as Premier but as Postmaster-General. This would restore the . former balance of power by replacing a Canterbury man in the Cabinet, and there is no doubt that Sir John's return to the Ministry would be very acceptable to the country. I have not, of course, heard a word on . this subject from Ministers or Sir J. Hall as yet, the matter being one which would be indiscreet to talk aboiit until settled, but undoubtedly the impression in the best informed political quarters is that such a thing is, to say the least of it, not at all unlikely.