PARLIAMENTARY NEWS AND GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11716, 26 July 1901, Page 6

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS AND GOSSIP.

i [by TELEGRAPH.— SPECIAL correspondent.] r - Wellington", Thursday. INSPECTORS' DUTIES. Speaking in the Council this ■ afternoon the Hon. C. C. Bowcn said he thought the whole practice of the present ♦ system of school inspection was wrong. It should not be merely a question of examination. That should be ,;■ the : very last and least thing inspectors should do. What was wanted was that they should be guides and help to the teachers, especially in the outside districts, to assist them, and point out when their methods were wrong, and be looked upon as friends instead of dreaded examiners ready to drop down unexpectedly. He considered that the number of inspectors was not sufficient in order to maintain a proper standard of education, and he would be very glad to see a special vote made for inspection in the country, and the whole scope of inspectors' duties enlarged beyond the ideas now held by many education boards. PROTECTING THE YOUNG. The third reading of the Young Persons' Protection Bill in the Council this? afternoon was strongly opposed by the Hon. W. Jennings. He said he did not believe it was a good thing in a country like New Zealand, that undue repression should, be put on the young children. It was true there were certain things in our cities that were to be regretted, but statistics proved that 'they did not exist to any extent which would warrant any such Act. He reminded the Council that he had endeavoured to have ,an amendment effected, in order to ensure that the protection officers should 'wear a distinguishing badge. If some such badge were not enforced we would have occurring in this colony what had occurred in Paris and London under the O.D. Act. He did not think the Bill was necessary, for the law at the present time gave power to deal with neglected children. Upon a division, the third reading was carried by 20 votes to 11, the voting being:—For: *Hons. Scotland, Harris, Swanson, T. Kelly, Arkwright, LeeSmith, Rigg, Jones, Jenkinson, Tomoana, Reeves, Louisson, Twomcy, Stevens, Bowen, Barnicoat, Bolt, Williams, Montgomery, and Walker. Against: Hons. Baillie, W. Kelly, Shrimski, Kerr, Pinkerton, Gourlay, Feldwick, Jennings, Ormond, McLean, and Johnston. The Bill, which is now in charge of Mr. Hall-Jones, the Minister for Public Works, was introduced in the Lower House this evening, and read a first time. A CLOSE DIVISION. The Premier came very near suffering a defeat to-night on a motion to recommit clause 9 in the Land for Settlement Bill. The voting was 31 to 29. The following members of his own party voted against him, viz., Messrs. Arnold, Buddo, Collins, Ell, Graham, Guinness, Hornsby, Laurenson, *Meredith, Millar, Tanner, R. Thompson, and Wilford. Messrs. Smith and G. W. Russell also voted■ against the Government. The Bill, as it emerges from committee, is rather an unworkable measure, but, of course, the Government may yet get some necessary amendments made in the Upper. House. There is a great deal of dissatisfaction with it, even amongst the Premiers.own party. DIVISION IN THE CAMP. There is a great difference of opinion amongst the Ministerial party on the land question, and the legislation and administration of the Government have during the last four days come in for some very hard knocks. To-night Messrs. Wilford . and Barclay fell foul of each other, and later on Messrs. Wilford and Hornsby had a tilt at one another, and then Messrs. Hogg and A. L. D. Fraser exchanged " compliments." The next Hansard will be interesting reading for farmers. Mr. A. L. D. Fraser, who told the Premier he had forgotten more about native lands matters than the Premier ever learnt, rather opened the eyes of members with an earnest and vigorous denunciation, of the Government native land purchases. The "twelve apostles" of Kawke's Bay, in the olden days, were, he said, not a circumstance to the present Government. ~ In those days the ,12s per acre which they gave for native lands was ever so much a fairer price thau the 5s and 10s an acre which. the Government ..were now paying the natives for land that private individuals were pursuing them with offers of £2 an acre for. The discussion at times assumed a decidedly personal tone, and at other times the growing cleavage between city and country members was very marked. This was emphasised by Mr. Haselden, who in his maiden speech condemned in unmeasured terms the Government land purchase ■ system at present in vogue, and said the lands of the pioneers were being coveted by the dwellers in the cities, who had not the courage to go into the back country and carve out homes for themselves as the early settlers had done. Mr. Thos. Mackenzie was equally vigorous in regard to the provision in the Bill which would prevent the sons of a settler in the event of his laud being taken, from getting the share of it to which they were entitled. These children, who had worked the land and had been brought up on it, he said, should have a prior right over men and women who had come here but yesterday, and might leave the colony again at any time.; This provision in the Bill struck at the root if patriotism and that love of country which was so essential to the development; of a young country. Notwithstanding all this, there were men in the Government party who last night walked into the lobby aid voted without the slightest comprehension of what they were voting about.

ONE MORE FOR THE OPPOSITION. "A round of applause greeted Mr. Haselden when be rose to make his maiden speech this evening. The question was the Lands for Settlement Bill, and he did not leave members long in doubt as to his sentiments. He characterised the whole thing as robbery and confiscation from start to finish. Why, he asked, were estates taken by the Government? Because the people from the towns came along and coveted their neighbour's landslands which the pioneers of the colony had won from the bush by hard toil and labour. People from th. towns came along when those lands were cultivated, and, bringing pressure to bear, compelled the Government to seize them because it was nothing less than seizure. The Government backed up those people because they had votes. Mi-. Haselden complained that the Government had in the North Island generally given far more than the fair market value foi • estates, and , the consequence was that they (who boasted about being the friends of the workers) bad to charge a rack rent to make up for it. The danger of this was that butter had only to fall one penny or twopence a lb and land would Jrop half its value. It the town people wanted land why could thej not go back and carve out homes /or themselves as the pioneers had done. He had spoken of a reign of terror in the country. As an illustration he told the House of'a woman who had threatened to shoot the' first man who came to take her land compulsorily, whereat there was much laughter. That was the feeling in the country. Mr. Haselden also spoke of a man who had said that he could not vote for him, simply because he knew he would be marked by the present Government, and his land* would be taken from him. (Ministerial cries of " Oh!"). Mr. Haselden did not say the man was right. He expressed himself in favour of the freehold, and strongly advocated that the unproductive Crown lands should be opened up before productive estates were seized. Mr. Haselden's speech was an out-and-out condemnation of the Government. . PARLIAMENTARY LANGUAGE. Mr. Guinness, the present Chairman of Committees, not only frequently allows an undue amount of latitude in the discussion of Bills in committee, but he occasionally gets tangled up in his own decisions. Last night the Premier applied the term "rude" to both Messrs. Pb-ani and Atkinson, and Mr. Guinness ruled that the word was quite Parliamentary. May, the , well-known authority, however, includes the term in the list of unparliamentary remarks, and last yea. M.. Guinness himself, when Mr. Atkinson applied the term to the Premier, ruled that it was unparliamentary. A NEW ARRIVAL. Shortly before nine o'clock this evening Mr. Haselden, the now member for Patea, entered the House amid a round of applause from the Opposition benches. He took his seat beside Mr. Atkinson. The new member was conducted by Messrs. Massey and

McGuire to the ■ Speaker, who administered the oath. Mr. Haselden was 'Warmly welcomed to Parliament by several old friends on both sides of the House. THE EFFECTS OF "PLUMPING." Apropos of Mr. Eli's question yesterday, asking the Government \to introduce legislation - for: the purpose of preventing "plumping" at election time, the following figures compiled by him as showing the number of votes'." wasted' by the system' at the three last general elections is interesting: — ' ■ 1893. 1896. 1898. Auckland -'...3,400 2,283 2.181 Wellington , ... 4,050 1,880 3,145" Dunedin .. ... 4,047 3,702 2,703: Christchurch ... 4,191 \ 2,767 - 5,898 Totals ... 15,688 10,632 13,927 ;A" MUCH DISCUSSED BILL. Exactly why" the' Lands for Settlement Bill should have excited such a long discussion it would be difficult to say, unless it be that members are always willing to talk on the land question, and since Friday, when the Bill was introduced, they have traversed the Government policy in this connection from end to end. The discussion in committee principally centred round Captain Russell's amendment, and Mr. Seddon, who was suffering from a very severe sore throat, did not see his Bill emerge from committee till five minutes past three this morning. The Premier movec. his promised amendment to remedy the evil of " dummyism." Principally out oft consideration ifor Mr. Seddon's state of health the House agreed not to meet again till this evening, when the third reading of the measure was considered, and even then members continued to discuss the land policy from " Dan to Beersheba." - . .'■' N JOTTINGS. " This is a Bill advertising us to the world as a highly.immoral people, but we are not that. We may have foolish young people, but every town and- country has. When you have passed this Bill you will not have done one iota to prevent sin going on, but merely made it worse by driving if into the slums. You will, make them a little more cautious, but the same sin will go on." This is the Hon. rM. Pinkerton's idea of the Young Persons Bill. . . , It is the Hon. Mr. Beeves' opinion that private schools attain a higher standard than other schools. Mr. Fowlds has given notice of his intention to introduce a Bill entitled the City of Auckland Loans Consolidation and Auckland City Borrowing Acts Amendment Bill. "The time has come when we ought to put a. stop to this incipient larrikinism and Hooliganism, as it is called in London," said the Hon. Mr.. Reeves, who complains of young larrikins using bad language at street corners, especially in the hearing of ladies. Major Steward-is. asking the PostmasterGeneral as to the result of his communication with different parts of the Empire regarding a uniform penny postage rate for newspapers, "Has the Minister- ior Agriculture's attention been called to the really serious danger of tick, which exists in South Africa, being brought to this colony on the saddles of returned troopers?" is a query standing in the name of Mr. McGuire. Mr. R. Thompson is moving for a return showing the number of Crown tenants in each provincial district of the colony who have been allowed a rebate of 10 per cent, off their Jajt two half-yearly payments of rent, due in January and July, 1901. Mr. Witheford is anxious to know the number of surveyors employed last year surveying Crown lands in the North Island, for the purpose of opening the same for settlement. The Minister for Lands is being asked by Mr. Hemes whether he will place a sum on the Estimates sufficient to drain and road the valuable Wailii swamp, situated between Pongakawa and Maketu. As the result of a deputation, consisting of Messrs. Fowlds, Massey, and Lang, which waited upon him to-day, with reference to securing insulated cars'for conveying daily produce on the Auckland section, Mr. Ronayne, the general manager of the railways, has undertaken to have some improvement made in time for the coming butter season. ' Mr. Massey has received a promise from the Colonial Secretary that the Papakura Racing Club shall have a totalisator permitas soon as one falls in. In answer to the Hon. J.D. Orniond today, the Hon.' W. C. Walker said the Government would consider the adoption of measures to clear the gorse from the banks of the Rangitikei trout stream in the Urewera Country, as far as the Crown lands were concerned, but in some places, the banks were still in a state of nature, and the work would be difficult. The Hon. J. D. Ormond described the river in question as the finest trout stream.in the world, with a wide and' increasing reputation, and states that the gorse will, if allowed to increase, render it inaccessible to anglers and tourists., ' :"'"'- .-- ..

"We shall have no end of ' discreet' women getting billets under this ActV suggested the Hon. G. McLean, regarding the Young Persons Bill. °