POLITICAL NOTES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10573, 30 September 1910, Page 1

POLITICAL NOTES.

By Telegraph. (From Our Own Correspondent.) "Wellington, September 2i). —The Tramway Bill.— An enormous quantity of evidence has been taken by the Labor Bills Committee on the Tramways Bill, and the representative of the tramway men who gave evidence returned to Auckland today. Nearly forty witnesses are said .to have been examined, and the hearing of evidence occupied nearly 60 hours. The Bill will not be through committee for some time yet. —Talk in Parliament. — Sir Joseph "Ward's admissions of -1497 inches of Hansard as his share of the speech-making between the 2Sth June and September has started the statisticians'at some interesting work for that period. The Hansard total is 2-15)3 double column pages, says the Post. It is computed that tin's represents about 2,500,000 words (an average of over 30,000 per member). This- enormous output makes nearly a mile of print slightly wider than a news column. In superficial measurement the loquacity spreads to about a-quarter of an acre.

—New Zealand Coat of Arms. — Some time ago the Government invited designs for a national coat of arms and over a year ago three designs were selected from those and sent to England for the recommendation of the College of Heralds. In due course a. recommendation, or rather a report, was received on the merits of the three designs in question. Since that time a committee, consisting of officers in the public service who take an interest in the matter, has been set up with a view to coming to a final determination. The Minister of Internal Affairs states that the three designs returned have been paid for and it is highly probable that' the coat of arms ultimately decided on will embody the best features of the three. —Local Government Defects. — A Hawko'.s, Bay Bill proposing to set up a central authority to control the rivers in the district inspired the Attor-ney-General to condemn what lie described as the absurdity of local government. No fewer than seven local bodies had been wrangling over the question for lu years. The deplorable state of affairs, he said, had occurred not only in Hawke's Bay but in all other parts of the country. There were about 081) district local governing bodies in the Dominion, and the case was a good illustration of how they did their work. It showed clearly that something must be done to improve the position.