POLITICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 7

POLITICAL NOTES.

[BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Tuesday.

Parliament settled down to ordinary 1 work this evening. All the galleries were ; crowded, and there was an attendance of j between 60 and 70. Lady Ward' and -Miss i Ward were prominent in the Ministerial ladies' gallery, and some 10 members of the Upper House graced the proceedings with their presence, the recently appointed Lords" being especially well represented. Prayers, which occupied about one minute, having been said, a few petitions were presented, and the clerk was deluged with the usual flood of questions. "I have a great many other questions here regarding education, Mr. Speaker. Is it necessary to read these?" asked Mr. Thomas Mackenzie.! this evening. The Speaker said it would be, otherwise they would be out of order. I "The questions are not out of order, sir, I but the Department is," promptly replied! the member for Waikouaiti; thereupon Mr..; Mackenzie proceeded to read from reams: of foolscap the questions he wished to putto the Minister for Education. ! THE LAND QUESTION. $ From a Parliamentary pricking of the card on the land question, it is anticipated Iby the Government -that there will be no difficulty in passing the measure providing for 'imitation by means of the graduated land tax. There will be a stronger fight, however, according to what can bo gathered, when the 66 years' lease and the endowment proposals arc brought forward. [The Government, however, may modify the endowment proposals with the view of making them acceptable to a majority. The Premier stated in Auckland, in January last, that the Government was not comnutted to Die Bill line for line, and statements made subsequently by other Ministers tend to indicate that the policy of the Government on this great question is not wanting in elasticity. An important amendment has already been announced in regard to the abandonment of the £50,000 basis of limitation, and it may be found that the endowment proposals will 'be considerably hanged. In regard to area, the total area of Crown lands remaining is something like sixteen million acres, and Mr. MeNab's original proposal was that the whole of this land should be reserved as endowments. It i.« now stated that the area of the proposed endowments will probably be greatly reduced, even to tlio extent, perhaps, of more than half. LOCAL ENDOWMENTS. Mr. Jennings has given notice to move for a return showing the various areas set apart in each land district as reserves for educational, municipal, harbour board, scenic, and other purposes, and also showing the amount received in revenue in each district from such reserves, as well as the areas of the portions of such lands not utilised in any way. The area of endowments not producing any revenue is stated to he of considerable extent. IRRESPONSIBLE CABINET-MAKERS.

Mr. Davey, in his speech this evening, Ireferred to what he termed ,- the indecent haste of the press and some members,"' who, when any member of the Cabinet .became ill, were so ready to suggest the name of someone who was likely to jump into his boots-. Ho objected to the sending forth of these pilot balloons. Having made this reference to the present situation, Mr. Davey went on to refer to . similar tactics that had been" pursued when Sir Joseph Ward had to undertake the formation of a Ministry. It was not fair of hon. members to harass the Premier by telling him not to appoint certain members to the Ministry, or that he should appoint certain others. Such conduct was unseemly, and did not give the Premier a chance. Where so many men in the party were equal in ability and length of service, members should let the Premier select the men he thought necessary, and object to them afterwards, if they liked. In regard to the present Ministry, Sir Joseph Ward could not have done better than make the selection he did. • THE DOMINION. The Premier's "surprise packet" was referred to by Mr. Davey in moving the Address-in-Rcply to-night. He could 1 not say that he was greatly impressed with the proposed change, but he naively added, amidst laughter from the Opposition benches, that "he. could not see; how any. harm could come of it." The term " colony," he said, was hardly applicable to New Zealand, but in making a change he would have liked to see a term chosen that was not applied to any other country. He thought that if the title of "Dominion" had been adopted when the provinces were abolished it would have been more appropriate. However, New Zealand had some outlying islands which were visited by the Mapourika some time ago— (laughter)—and perhaps the term "Dominion" would be suitable, as embracing these, in addition to New Zealand proper. He did not think that the change would give New Zealand any better status, but it would bo supposed to give members the right to affix the well-known letters " M.P" after their names in place of the "M.H.R.," which was hardly known outside of the colony. He would support the Premier's motion on the subject. THE MINING INDUSTRY.

A pica for the mining industry was made this evening by Mi*. Poland. He said that the Governor's Speech lust year made a similar reference to that mentioned in this year's Speech, but although Parliament willingly granted the money he could not .say that anything very great had been done in regard to developing our mineral resources during the year. In the Ohinemuri district particularly, nothing had been done. It was true that the Minister had promised a subsidy to assist deep level mining at the Thames, but generally throughout the colony the mining industry had received very little encouragement. He expressed disappointment nfc finding that Dr. Bell, the geological director, would not yet be available to continue in the Auckland district the good work already done by him in the South Island, and in this connection he remarked that there seemed to be rather too great a tendency to send official heads of Departments out of the colony on "touring"' expeditions. He hoped, however, that when Dr. Bell returned from his

"tour" he would find time, to visit the Ohinemuri district. Mr. Poland also referred to the Urewera country, and said he had heard that wealthy syndicates had men there who obtained leases from the Maoris, and were acquiring prospecting rights. It would probably, lie said, be found when the ground was opened to prospecting that these syndicates had monopolised the best parts of it. THE ADDRESS-IN-REPL*'. The Address-in-Reply debate was suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted this evening by the Government Whip, Mr. Kidd, moving the adjournment. The House rose shortly alter 10 o'clock. PETITIONS. • \ Anti-vaccination and Civil Service superanimation petitions were presented to Par- , liament to-day.