PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4425, 3 August 1901, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

THE COUNTIES BILLCanterbury members are anxiously enquiring when the conference of road boards to consider the Counties Bill is to be held. It was suggested by the Premier recently in tho House that the road boards should hold a conference, just as was proposed by the representatives of the county councils at that time. Mr G. W. Bussell asked yesterday to be enlightened upon this subject The Premier replied that the road boards had had plenty of time, and if they had not moved in the matter, it was .not the fault of the House. However, they could take the opportunity even now of making their views known to the committee of Parliament to which the Bill had been referred. AN APPEAL FOE EXPENSES. One eager member of a road board recently wrote to the Premier appealing to bo informed whether the Government would pay the expenses of Road Board delegates to Wellington to attend a conference to consider the Counties Bill. “It must have been from the West Coast, suggested Mr G. W. Russell, commenting yesterday on the incident. “No. it was < *n o t from the West Coast,” replied the Premier. “From Auckland?” queried Mr G. J. Smith. “No. nor from Auckland,” the Premier said; and added. “And I think the hon. member had better not press the question too closely,” an observation which caused a laugh at the expense of Canterbury. ADVANCES TO SETTLERS. Up to the 22nd July last, the number of applications received by the Advances to Settlers Office was 13,624. and the amount applied for was £4.787,608. The number of applications authorised to the same date was 10,451, for the value of

£3,437,333. Tho advances have been accepted in 0191 cases, amounting ta £2,858,070. BICYCLES ON FOOTPATHS. The Hon. J. E. Jenkinson moved in the Legislative Council yesterday to have a clause inserted in the Police Offences Act specifying that it shall not be an offence for any person to wheel (but not to ride) a bicycle on any public footpath. The proposition was not favourably received. The Alinister of Education told the mover there might with ease be driven through the streets of Invercargill fifty bicycles without hurting anyone, but that could not be done in Wellington. Traffic on the footpaths of cities was already congested. He would advise Air Jenkinson to withdraw his motion. Tho Council then grew discursive. The harmless necessary nursemaid and her charges, muddy roads and Professor Bickerton, muddy bicycles and bulky peram buiators on footpaths, with other less cognate subjects, were discussed with much seriousness by members. The new clause was eventually rejected by 19 votes to 6; so tbe acrobatic performances sometimes necessary to obviate pedestrian cyclist collisions will be confined to roadways for another year at least.

SUPERVISIONS OF EXAMINATIONS A question of some imnortance in regard to tho conduct cf examinations is raised by Air .Guinness, who is to ask tha Government, “Whether tho Alinister .of Education is aware that in the Junior Civil Service examination, which i* competitive, and upon the result of which the future of so many candidates depends, many of the examiners mark tho work of their own pupils; and that the papers containing the candidates’ answers are. when valued, retained by tho examiners, to be afterwards given out to their pupils as scribbling paper, to the great annoyance and even injury of those candidates who have been examined?” Air Guinness also intends to ask, “What steps does the Alinister of Education propose to take in order to have the examinations in music, including singing, and in sowing for teachers’ certificate examinations conducted by independent examiners instead of by teachers appointed on the recommendation of a secretary or an inspector of an Education Board; and will he abolish the present system under which the examiners value and decide upon the work of their own pupils?”

JOTTINGS. Messrs and G. W. Russell are suggesting that the revenues of New Zeakmd societies.for tho prevention of cruelty to women and children should be subsidised by the Government. :ar Hogg intends to ask the Minister of Justice if he will make provision this year for tho erection of a new courthouse in Masterton. Mr Stevens suggests that the Colonial Secretary should obtain a report aft to tho suitability of Levin for the sanatorium for consumptives. A petition fromi Mr William Hunter, for consideration of his claim for services in the Hutt Rifle Volunteers, was pi'csionted by Mr Wilford yesterday. _ • “Yv 7 hat bon. members say in thip House and what they say on the plat, form are two different things. —Hon. C H. Mills. „ The Ladies’ Gallery of the House is far too small for the number of ladies who attend cu any night of an important debate. Last night several ladies had to stand, as they could not obtain fie Mr Lawry’s Gaming and Lotteries Vet Amendment Bill legalises sweeps and lotteries conducted under license from the Colonial Secretary. Tho icense fee shall be £25. In order to guarantee that any lottery or sweepstakes shall he conducted honestly, every applicant for a license is to deposit a bond for the full ° such lottery or swoepstake» "Ki‘ the Public Trustee. , ~, „ /There is a wealth of humour about the Hon. J. Twomey which the hon. gentleman does not suspect himself ot. His "strains of unpremeditated glee caused amusement to a number or lus fellow councillors yesterday. The general laughter began when Mr Twomey told the Council that often an information for using obscene language caused trouble. “I’ve experienced it myself, he added; but on hearing sounds of mirth he explained that it was as a J.P. he had been troubled, and by reason of the words of an information. His speech was punctuated with members laughter, and he was finally moved to protest vigorously if inelegantly, “There s a hen about ’here.” Then the cackling increased to a roar. ~ “We have made the law relating to the use of obscene language so stringent that it is now in a large measure inoperative. The Hon. H. Feldwick yesterday uttered the above opinion in the Legislative Council, and in support of it instanced the fact that magistrates sometimes refused to enter convictions for the more serious offence when a man was charged with both drunkenness and obscenity. The Hon. C. Louisson yesterday informed the Council that as he was walking down the footpath of one of the prmcinal streets in Wellington he was stepping up to his boot-tops in pools of water every few yards. Another member spoke of “lanes’like Cuba street and Willis street.” The Hon. R. Reeves would like to see many hundred more perambulators with children in them pervading the footpaths of the colony. A petition, largely signed by'the ratepayers of the Featherston road district, asking that that district should be constituted into a separate county, was presented yesterday bv Mr Hornsby. There is to he another Bill this year for a further .loan. So the Premier indicated yesterday in the course of a speech on the Advances to Settlers Bill.Mr Tanner hopes that this year no hasty legislation will he sprung upon local-bodies. He yesterday assured the House that in .Canterbury some local bodies were only_ now .expressing their surprise at certain legislation affecting them which had been passed last year.