PARLIAMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12908, 3 July 1905, Page 6

PARLIAMENT.

i [Y. TELEGRAPH.— ASSOCIATION.] HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Saturday. IMPREST SUPPLY BILL DEBATE. After the telegraph office closed, the debate on the Imprest Supply Bill was continued. • Mr. SEDDON, in the course of his reply to various speakers, said other people could take their gloves off, and those people to whom they were taken off must look out. With regard to the criticism of the Defence Department, he said the regulations which- had been referred to had been in force for the past ten years. The Government was not responsible for the expenditure on defence. The admiral and commandant had been advised to abandon the defence of Lyttelton and Dunedin; hut there was an agitation to retain the defences at Christchurch, which military authorities had declared to be useless. No proof of maladministration had been fur* nished in regard to the Education Department. Large increases in salaries had been granted to teachers, and the present salaries were in• accordance with the recommendations of the Education Committee. Since he took charge of the Education large increases had taken place in the expenditure on salaries, school buildings, manual and technical instruction, scholarships, and so on, amounting to half-a-million sterling. 'Hie Government had been 14 years in office, and if all that could be said against it now was what had been said that night, then he contended they had the most progressive Administration that there ever was in this or any other colony. In conclusion, Mr.' Seddon said: "We are not afraid of next November. The people of the colony have not lost confidence in the Administration."

Mr. TAYLOR said the Premier had cleverly evaded every charge brought against the Government during this debate. He contended that the increased expenditure on education was justified and necessary, not by' way of generous treatment to school teachers, but by virtue of the fact that the attendance at the schools had been gradually increasing. Mr. SEDDON, in the course of further debate, said if he was to be attacked in the manner he had been, he should take steps to protect himself and his family. Eventually the Bill passed the final stages on the voices.

The House rose at four a.m. The Legislative Council then met and put the Bill through all its stages.