Parliamentary Jottings.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6145, 18 August 1891, Page 3

Parliamentary Jottings.

(from our own correspondent.) Mf Fisher called attention t;o the fact that- Sir Robert Stotafe is solicitor to the Government Lif© Insurance Department and also to the opposition society, the Mutual Life Department, but Goye'rnmentstatedthorewas no incompatibility in that. Mr Fisher was very, warm in resenting an assertion by Mr Fish that ha had been returned to Parliament on the backs of the Liberal party, or any other party, for that? matter. Mr Joyce wants the Government to consider the advisablenegs of providing a Civil Division of tha New. Zealand Cross, to b« awarded for acts of bravery in saving ~ life, from fire, shipwreck, drowning.— Government sympathised with the proposal, and will take the matter into consideration during the recess. The Minister of Lands asserted that the present Government have bought more land sines they took office than was purchased in tho previous three years. Sir John Hall's Female Suffrage Bill and Mr Fraser's Aliens Disqualification Removal Bill have set down amongst other private members' Bills tolse considered by I the House on Thursday next. Two petitions were presented yesterday in favor of a compassionate allowance to tho widow of thelate J. O. Brown, M. H.R. One of them bore 900 signatures. A- petition from Waikato electors, presented by the Hon. Mr Bryce, protests against the proposed payment of members at the rate of L 240 per annum, instead of the present Ll5O, as being a reversal of the desire for retrenchment unanimously expressed 6t th© laafc nnd preceding general electiona, and also being inimical to tha best interests of the colony. Mr Kennedy Macdonald said that for six- weeks consecutively the police of Wellington have not had one day's rest, and that they do not have leave an Sundays as they once used to do.— Mr Seddon said there was more Sunday work thaa before because of steamers arriving and stops taken to prevent Sunday trading. The whole question of our charitable aid system is to ba considered during the recess by Government. Ii is possible by systematic dressing to destroy the codlin moth, said Capt. Russell, Unless something is done he had no ' doubt that the apple crop of the colony would be destroyed. The Minister of Agriculture asked for information. Mr'Duthie raised a personal matter He complained to the Minister of Works the other day of -the suspicious action of an overseer on public works, and in a speech in ths House the Minister said Mr Duthie had been actuated by personal motives as he was the merchant who sold some wire to the contractors. Mr Seddon admitted Mr Duthie had only acted in jrood faith in oalling his attention to tho matter, but it was one of his principles "never to back down, never to retract anything he had said." After a little breeze, the little dispute blew over. The Representation Commissioners will commence their labors as soon as the results of the census and the SurveyorGeneral's report thereon are complete, in aboat three weeks' time. Tha Consolidated Stock Bill proposes to bring a large number of Government securities which have fallen due to be brought under the New Zealand Consolidated Stock Act, 1884. The securities, which are held by Government Trust Departments, amount to two and a half million pounds and fall duo within two years. Mr Fish raised a great howl about an improper question which ho was prevented from putting. The question was in reference to a private converr.ition in a railway train about the Dunedin hospital enquiry. Half an hour's brisk discussion ensued, in which Mr Fish endeavored once or twice to traverse the ruling of the Speaker, but was foiled. Later in the day Mr Fish got to tho windward of tho House and gave fresh notice, reading the alleged conversation, which was of suoh a paltry nature that it caused much laughter. " I knew nothing of the occurrence till after i* had taken place " ia one of Buller's bulls. -• . A little diversion was indulged in this "afternoon in a fight between the West % C&asb members on tho relative merits of ' loeir barbers and their coal. The discussion arose over a question asking why the Hinemoa did not enter the Greymouth bar. A reply was given that Captain Fairchild had acted in his own wise discretion. It is reported that the Minos Committee day af %9V day continues to be a regular bear garden; The Minister seems to imagine that not only should the principle qf the oneman-one-vote obtain, but that the one Minister who happens to be in chargo of the "Bjll relating to his department is to have the one and only voice in determining the big issues as to goldmines and coalmines which tha Mining Bill embodies. Two at least of the West Coast members have persistently shown a firm front in opposition to the Minister of Mines,. .and the members for the other mining constituencies are steadfastly backing them up. Tlie Minister of Mines, however, has apparently determined that the Bill must and shall go through, for he continues to fight his opponents, nearly all of whom Wong to 7 , his own party, inch by inch. _ Reporting upon the petition of Lieuten-anfc-Colonel MacDonnell, *th« Public Petitions Committee stated, that although the petitioner was promised by the Government, which was in office in 1869, permanent employment in recognition of Jiis milita;y services, which promise was nofc fulfilled, he is now precluded from maKing any claim because he petitioned Parliament in 1878, and as the result, was paid L4OO, which ho accepted in full satisfaction of his claims for past services. They recommended, however, that tho Government should give the petitioner employment for which he is suited if opportunity offers^