PARLIAMENT.

Opunake Times, Volume V, Issue 212, 15 September 1896, Page 3

PARLIAMENT.

BOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

IMPREST SUPPLY BILL.

Au Imprest Supply Bill for £260,700 passed through all its stages. GKADUATED LAND TAX. Replying to questions it was stated that the Graduated Land Tax bad not had the effect of breaking up any large estates, and the Government regretted that notwithstanding recent legislation the aggregation of large estates was still going on.

ADJOURNMENT. The adjournment of the House was moved, and the rest of the afternoon was spent in discussing the case of J. J. Meikle, of Southland, who had petitioned the House last session for compensation for alleged wrongful imprisonment, and in whose case the Public Petitions Committee had made a favorable report, recommending the payment of a certain compensation. Mr Thompson stated that the matter would be considered with other reports at the end of the session. SUBVEYOBS BILL. The Hon. Mr McKenzie moved the second reading of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors Bill to provide for the formation of an institute of surveyors in New Zealand and for incorporation thereof. He strongly urged the necessit/ for this Bill in the interests of the surveyors of the colony, and hoped the House would agree to its second reading, as the Bill had already passed the Council. Mr Hogg opposed the Bill, as its tendency would be to establish a close corporation, of which they had already too much in the colony. Dr Newman, Messrs Thompson, Allen, Collins, Earnshaw, Massey, and others, supported the Bill, and expressed their surprise that it should meet with opposition. Messrs Hall, Willis, Duncan, E. M. Smith, and others spoke against the Bill, and said it was not required by the profession. After further debate the second reading was carried by 49 to 6.

MASTEB AND APPRENTICE.

The regulation of master and apprentice has engaged tbe attention of the Government several times since the creation of the Minister of Labor, but all attempts at legislation for an improved state of affairs have failed. The Bill now before the House is not likely to meet with a better fate. The Premier, in asking for its committal, urged that it was muoh better to stop at once the indiscriminate employment of boys and girls of tender years as apprentices than have the head of families dependent on their children for support. Captain, Russell made a damaging speech in opposition to tbe Bill, in the course of which he said the result of the. deliberations of the Labor Bills Committee was that they thought it would be a very good thing if the Bill was postponed until some future occasion, when better evidence could be obtained, and members would have a better opportunity of studying the question. Mr Willis, a staunch Ministerialist, said that the Bill went in the direction of preventing boys getting employment. He would like to see legislation introduced giving employment. After several hours' further debate the motion for committal was carried by 88 to 22.

Motions for the committal of the Shops and Shop Assistants Act Amendment Bill and Hawkers Bill were agreed to on the voices. PRESENT TO MB MITCHELSON. The members of the Opposition have sent to the Hon. Mr Mitchelson a handsome salver, suitably inscribed, on the occasion of his silver wedding. It bears this inscription :—" Presented by the Party in Opposition, New Zealand Parliament, 1896, to the Hon. E. and Mrs Mitchelson on the happy occasion of their silver wedding. September 12, 1896." CLOSE OF THE SESSION. Mr Seddon said the action of the Legislative Council in postponing the Aid to Public Works and Land Settlement Bill had delayed the session a week, as the Governmemt could not bring down the Public Works Estimates until that Bill had passed. He hoped to be able to bring the session to a close at the end of the month, or the first week in October at the latest. FINAL STAGES. 4t The Abbatoirs and Slaughterhouses Act Amendment Bill and the Poverty Bay Land and Deeds Registration Bill passed their final stages. WAGES BILL. Mr Seddon moved the recommittal of the Wages Protection Bill, to consider the re-insertion of clause 5, making gumdiggers subject to the provisions of the Truck Act, which had been excised when the Bill was in Committee. The motion was carried, after considerable debate, by 88 to 24. In Committee on the Bill, clause 5 was altered to provide that a worker shall receive such price for gum sold to his employer as shall be mutually agreed upon at the time of sale.