POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5205, 23 October 1878, Page 5

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

[By Telegraph. |

(fkom our own correspondent.)

Wellington, October 22nd.

The Council has amended the Electoral Bill, /so as to provide that each elector shal' have but one vote, and only be entitled to vote for one member at each election, no matter how many members there may be to be elected. This amendment was moved by Mr Waterhouse, anel will probably jeopardise the whole Bill. There is not the slightest chance of its being agreed to by the House. The general impression is that the Bill will be abandoned.

The Council has also amended the Publh Revenue Act, by striking out tho sub-section allowing members of tho Legislature to be appointed Comptroller or Deputy-auditor. It is said that the latter office was to be given to Mr Rolleston or to Mr Bowen.

Tho whole of to-day's sitting in the House has bean utterly wasted. Mr Sheehan moved the discharge of the first eleven orders of tlie day, consisting of the Fencing, Fine Arts, Copyright Amendment, Fisheries Preservation, Publicans' Licenses, Rabbit Nuisance, Brands Registration, Impounding, Bribery, Dog Registration, Wanganui Harbour Board, and Dunedin Botanical Gare'ens Bills. On this motion a long debate took placo, each speaker objecting to some Bill or other being abandoned.

Mr Fox attacked the Government warmly for not having brought in a Licensiug BilL He said he and others had been deceived. Mr Sheehan defended tho Government, and stated that he had givon instructions beiore the session to have a Bill prepared, but when he saw tho draft he found the Bill based on the assumption that every publican was a liar, a thief, a rogue, and a scoundrel, and he accordingly refused to introduce it. The BiU, which it was proposed to discharge, was Mr O'Rorke's Bill, to equalise tho license fees throughout the Colony—by making the fee for 10 o'clcck licenses L3O, and for 12 o'clock licenses L4O.

Mr Wakefield complained of the Bribery Bill being thrown out, as it was really an essential part of the Electoral Bill, and that had better be abandoned unless the Bribery Bill was passed. Iv tho end, all tho Bills were discharged. Mr George M'Lean to-day presented a petition from Messrs Holt and M'Carthy, asking that no special wire concession should be made to any papers; and he gave notice of a Bill to amend the Electric Telegraph Act, to prevent this being done. A discussion took place, in which Messrs M'Lean and Pox spoke very strongly of giving a special wire to any paper. The Disqualification BiU has come from the Council amended, and a couple of hours have been wasted in discussing the amendments. In reference to one ot these amendments, striking out the exemption of advertising contracts, Sir R. Douglas spoke strongly against the Press, and said that even members of the Government were interested in papers, and connived at the publication of lying and false reports, as well as comments on such reports. He declared that the House would, ho believed, soon take the matter into its own hands, and expel from the gallery the representatives of papers which published false reports. The consideration of the _ amendments in the Bill hai been postponed lill to-morrow. Probably tho Bill will drop as it did last year.

Mr Luckie's appointment as Land Tax Com missioner i.s positively denied.