PARLIAMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 733, 15 August 1878, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

W'KMiTNViTON', August 11. The fc.illowiijg is the conclusion of Tnesday's sitiis!',' of' the House of Representatives, which was unavoidably crowded out of our hist issue : At the sitting of the House last evening, the debate on the Electoral Bill wi resumed.

The Premier regretted he was not in such health as would enable him to do justice to the important subject before rhem. He denied that he made any pie he, as he was reported to have made by the member for Geraldine, in regard . f Manhood SullYage, and be could refer the House to his speech at Timaru, respecting cumulative voting. His remarks referred to Municipal elections only, these, elections heinu' more of a personal matter than (dec'ions to that House. Looking at the Bill in its general aspect, one <_'i-uat point in it was the residential qualiiL ition. 'Vheu tin;. Government were framiv: Mm present Bill, they had in

tie. experience gained in countries ;., -.'spr,: df manhood suffrage, and he contended that the Bill would be found to bo a t/reat charter of right, to the people, it wmild be unwise to introduce manhood suiirage pure and simple without some wholesome check. The hon. •iintlciiK-ut here touched upon the benefit \>i the legi.-1.-umn to education and the iand t;:K as contrasted with thepuphionefw of the late Government, who only cried out for political vest. He asked the House nor to shut their eyes to the factthat there were 70,000 male adults in the colour who had no vote, and to gram suffrage, to ' so enormous a number of mvii. must be considered .a great thing. TiioUbaiiJjef young rneii iu the Colony. U oiiallil-yi to vote under the old syst m, '.'•> for an indefinite period \yit!i-1 out acc('iii-iuy the'inestimable, privilege i of thu ~ ew"- io vote. But it, was wej! j i r!,;-.- srr:i'::e;'-rs coming to the colony should iiv re-id-'uee have time to acquire, sou:-;'! ; ; 'ii..v, le '.v i-i 'lie colony and i<s politics • efore b.he;,■ .tlLi'.Vci! to rote. They might .■• ;■..'■■•; •hy this, or that, or the other '.-..Vi'.-': '':'•• H-.'ilSe would var ; s. In truth, ;e rs m T anxious to go" too far. What the Geywmeot d-sired. first of all. -was .-, ■_■;:-■',' thoro;e.-;h representation for >,ew Z .-d-!jd : hen the represent;! Hon was p'aced upon a. ..proper baseband people edt:-:at:d to the use of the frun- >:\<\~ , ;:>•■:: woeld be the lime to deal with r.iiose questions that they might be said ro ]y.':<3 «u i'ied. such as Payment of vr,,,.-i ;e ,c. ;;,. ; ..t'eer largo questions. He apn";-. 1 ■<■} to ilo !:fn'M to essist him and ■is colhrv.-e.r. in carrying out the great and good work they had in hand. Let them "cling iove -lli-vi." a:;d not allow themselves to bo separated by the reviling of those opposed to them. Dr. "vVaili". s-.id he rose to expostulate in a quiet and friendly way with the manhood sui-Vnge while, they were about it. Ho w-s h> a edrmo-a over the Bill, "lid <?C'!-.""'" ''-" '•'■' 1'•""■' '"'' voie - There were two b;:N ! ,fo-e House, and in -:,fl, 1,,, -„■,.■ f-a-nres. but of thc'fwo he r'N-r pr ferred the TV.U <-f the ur. - - iov Wmkafo. He believed :i the Premier v.o'.i' i rhri-v.- oyer ihe o;v, or thevnru-hr :■:•.! i;: ; e- uni '. m'sal suiiVag'-. Tax-* ion ami representation s.ioind ge vml in !:-!!!'h Kvevyone who paid taxes and liv-1 iti the colony should have ■•• vote. Unrepresented interests wcre_ always overlooked and neglected. With regard to Maori qualification, why should they be allowed a double or special representation in a country like. this. .Another blemish in the Bill was the want of some plan for the distribution of representation.

Mr (7'sbonic a-nv'-d with manhood suffrage, but he also believed in property Iviii'f to a certain represented. He the Premier was not in aceord with his H' could iiardlv think that granting the franchise. ?n women was a serious proposition. Home was the only place where women onid-propevly- make law for order and Govern-iieut, to bring them to that House weue.t be a double failure. The women would noc be found fit representatives, and would be rendered unfit for their other functions. He hoped the Government would vet be able during the session to inform the House that they intended to brine; in a measure, for the adjustment of the" representation, which was. yery much wanted.' ....

Mr. Saunders ■ said he neither agreed with the Bill itself, nor, strange to',say, with the' objection against it.: He strongly objected to the Bill' doing : ; a\vay with The time-honored feature of elections at the hustings, where the candidates, proposers, and seconders, had to' come lace to face with the Selectors. This he held to be one of the best means , of educating the public. As for the. ballot,., he .would pivferafree and open system of voting. He.thought that now was.;.the time for the House to deal with the difli-. culry arising out of - the plurality of votes. He hoped the House would endeavor to put a reasonable limit upon the plurality of voting. It would be wise for the House to divest itself ofg some of the power now pertaining tr| property. If they .did not do so they might expect

some retaliation when the franchise became so widely extended as was inevitable. As to residential qualifications, he would like to see it extended to Ho wanted to see into the measure, so J&at it wbuld|a#ect with and w.i|Mput pr&perty ij£the sh<fiM--*be. ,'iu.troto vote, to in the; presence of anothet'elector/'Jn'steadfcdf; before a J.P.; prov|di'of clbrsiiiggptiblic-hpiises during e !ectyJrK beeanUe.^te'effi cac.y-oj.;iiiat_,pro| visißirdiad been proved in regretted that in the Bill provision had not been made for a re-distribution of seats. He hoped the Government might yet do it. ..jVIr.-Hodgldnson, while approving ofthe 81117 saidTie~regretWd~Tt was hot accom-panied-'by-a, Bill, redistributing the seats. The..tw.o.'years residence clause was a wise "arid"Conservative measure, but he would have pr*ferred having a six months local residence to twelve. Re opposed the woman's franchise and Haves' system. Mr. Bowen commended the .speed] of the lion, member for Cheviot, as_ a fair and practical criticism of the Bill. He was glad the. Bill was not" discussed fvuin a party point, of view. He hoped tiie jjegislation Bill would bo brought down and dealt with in a similar manner. Ho did not admit the .principle that manhood suffrage would edve all that was neededm tiie Colony. He instanced cases in America where the tyranny of a majority had often buried out of sight some of the b;-st and wisest minds in the country ._ The (Government proposals in the main were fair and reasonable. He admired the residential clause and the plurality of votes. _At the present time not more than two-thirds of the electors were on the roll, and so it would be in the future. He did not see how the rolls were to be purged of names placed on the roll in respect to residence, when the persons left a district; and it struck him that the lowering of the property qualification, and the enacting of .a plurality of votes would result in giving more property votes, and thus act in a manner oontrary to what the Government .: expected.- As to woman suffrage, he contended that • under the ! present system women were fully repre- • ■ nted, and by family ties exercised a great i deal of political influence, and that the class of women that would come into the Bouse would not be those who would be accepted by'the women of the country as their representatives. He disapproved of Maori qualifications which allowed them to interfere 'in our elections as well as their own. Mr. Sutton thought the Bill dealt with a question which was not of burning importance, and predicted that_ were the franchise lowered as proposed it would be productive of evil results, which had followed .1 similar condition of things in Victoria, and would not in any way tend to the good government of the people. Instead of political power being thrown into the hands of the bulk of the people, it would be placed in the hands of large employers.of labor. He denied that the lower classes were the most liberal ; the true liberals were to be found in the middle class. Registration and tiie exer- ' cise of votes should be insisted upon, and votes should not be allowed to persons who were rate defaulters. Mr. Woolcock wanted to know why the , G< .vemment had not introduced a measure '. ,vhich would give to tiie voice of every . man in the country an echo in that House. The Bill v.-as not. sufficiently in unison •<vi;h tl'.- democratic tendencies of thoug:i> i:i a new colon}'. Tiie debate was adjourned on the motion of Mr. Reeves, and the House ruse at ■ 11.50.

August 15. In the House of Representatives yesterday. r. Fox gave notice to ask if tin Government had received any c■■•mumnication from Lord regarding t'i'.c settlement of the Eastern question. fie also gave notice to ask for further in formation than that already afforded regarding the recent native meetings. Mr. Barton gave notice to ask for the production of the depositions in the :>. • n v. O'Connor. fn reph' to Mr. Stevens, Mr. Macandrew said, it was not proposed to make any nrovisinn to meet the case of persons eraj. loved on railways who suffered injury in the"execution of their duty. They woidd deal with every individual case upon itmi'rirs. allowing six months" .salary in uas of death. In reply to Mr. Son ton: Mr. Macaudivw said'that Koad Boards and Munie'nalilies will bo saippUed v.-iih the Nov, i Zealand (',?.■/. 'ire free uf expense. i I,i n-i.lv to Mr. itollesion, Mr. F..-.1-j lance said a report upon the present condition ff fho Lunatic Asylums of tin I p,,; (11 ,,. . . (J wr-o of preparation. i : -o a. question by Mr. Riehard- _ ..:, Mr. Macandrew said the Brogden claims had not been settled, and lie liar 1 just laid upon the table a paper containing the fullest particulars in relation t< these claims. The Hon. Mr. Fox moved for a retun of all advertisements published by the Government during the year trrminatine on- Ist 'July, inviting tenders from publishers of newspapers for insertion o: Government advertisements and notices, of all tenders sent in reply to such advertisements, giving rates tendered, and showing any tenders and their rates no! accepted ; also, a return of all insertion?of advertisements or notices in any newspaper by authority of any Government officer without tenders having been publicly invited.. - Mr Stout said the Government would have no hesitation in furnishing the return required, and he thought it a pity that the last speaker had not waited until he was liefer informed. A. long debate, at times of a somewhat personal nature followed, which was eventually cut short by the adjournment at 5.30 p.m. On the House resuming at 7.30 p.m,, The Deceased "Wife's Sister Marriage Bill aiuV the' Administration Bill were read a first time. . ... Mr. Whitakcr moved the second readins: of Parliamentary Representation Bill. He said ' : that-at present there was no law or system for regulating electoral districts. This had been a grievance for many years, and---Bills were constantly being introduced to .remedy this, or that defect in some particular district. He referred to the self-adjusting scheme which obtained in the United States, and which relieved Congress of all annoyance from such, a cause. He asked why they should not adopt such a scheme here, and thusrid the House of a most troublesome question.

As to the qualification part of the Bill, it granted the fullest franchise that could be observed. The "only male adults excluded were felons, aliens, Maoris, a"'!-. half-castes, the latter two being specially '/dealt with in another part of the Bp; /Registration, lie considered, was difficult to deal with', but all ought to'agree/'that what was desiivd was'a. simple aiidinexpensive system which the present was not. • By'his system a proper Registration Gffi.i.C'tsi' should be appointed in every district, land his duty would be to see that everyone who had a right to be on the roll should be duly registered, and if any were not put on the roll they could claim thenvotes, and appeals might be heard before any Resident Magistrate. Pure democracy—that is, the government of the people by the people—was impossible under present circumstances. The best approach to democratic government he held to be to get the opinions of the sections of a community, and, having all these, then for the majority to decide. As to Maori representation, the double vote was done away with and special representation retain I'd. [We are compelled to hold over the remainder of our report.] In the Legislative duncd yesterday. Colonel Whitmore received permission to introduce a Bill entitled the Executive Councillors Act, JN'7B. The Harbors Bill was read a second time. The Council went into Committee on the Literary institutions and Public Libraries Bill. On reaching clause B>, progress was reported, and leave obtained to sit a'iain to-morrow. The Trades Unions and Reprint of Statutes iJill.-:; were likewise considered, and progress reported.