THE GOVERNMENT IN A TIGHT CORNER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7665, 27 June 1896, Page 3

THE GOVERNMENT IN A TIGHT CORNER.

. -; - Wellington, to-day. '..- ' For the first time since the present Minisi ,-'■ teri'alparty came into power the Government \',” found themselves in a tight corner last night. 'Had the* question gone to division Mr G. ' W.- Russell's amendment would have been 5 voarried, and the Premier, -wishing to avert ,' ' • bo decided a slap in the face, set up one of r'.'. his atauhchest followers to move the adjourn--1 -'ment of the debate, aud every effort was '.' '. .made to whip the party into line to support " ' the adjournment. The position was critical „ for a time, and Mr Seddon gave as a reason . why the adjournment, was necessary that at ~ least five members still wished to speak. ■ . Mr-W. Hutchison admitted his anxiety to say something on ths question^ but expresed 'a willingness to waive the right if a direct „, vote, waa taken at that sitting. Though the adjournment was carried by four votes, the ' . majority was really only two, owing to the ■vote of Mr Mitohelson, who, forgetful of the fact that he was paired with the Hon. Mr 'Thompson, remained in the Chamber, and found himself, according to Parliamentary usage, compelled to vote in the lobby in whioh the gentleman he waa paired with . would have voted. The debate proved that the House was . unanimous in its desire for an enquiry, and . that the House was determined- to keep all . private accounts of the bank mv olable. Mr Seddon has on Tuesday to extricate . himself from an awkward position. What ,will happen will probably be this : Mr . Russell's amendment will be defeated, where- . npon the Premier will have a further y amendment of somewhat like terms submitted by one of his own side id the House, and carried. One thing is certain that the scope of the enquiry will be limited and there will be no raking up old accounts, " which being attempted for electioneering purposes, will not be permitted by the : House. Wellington, this afternoon. A Government caucus has been convened for 4 o'clook to-day to consider the banking ' question. The Premier was unusually active in the lobbies this forenoon, and it is evident that a determined effort is to be made to. conoiliate the recalcitrant supporters. The probable outcome of the caucus will be that the order of reference will be modivfied, that the House will be given a free hand in the selection of the Committee, and that the choice will be made upon a modified Hare system as suggeated by Mr Saunders.

PAELIAMENTARY NOTES. > «

, ' (Herald Special Reporter. ) Wellington, to-day. ABOUT THOSE OATS. The oata transaction oeoupied the attention of the House yesterday for a few j ' minutes. In asking the Premier if he would take the necessary steps to prosecute all '< parties connected with- the issue of false " bond warrants: for £30,000 on the firm of " John Connell and Co., of London, aoeording i to the evidence given in the case recently heard before Mr Justice Williams in Dunedin, Me J. W. Kelly (member for Inyercargill) explained that he put the question in no hostile spirit to Mr Ward. The Premier said that so far as the -'. ■ evidence had gone they had only one side of the question. He thought it unfair and unßritish to put forward such a qnestion 7 until they had heard all the evidence upon - the Bobjeot. A committee was now being set up to fully enquire into all these matters, and until these enquiries had been made it ; '•- was unfair to ask such questions. .-' '-.Mr Kelly: Will you bring that matter before the committee ? ', -The Premier : Certainly. ASIATICS EESTRTCTIOfT. - ' The second reading of the Asiatics Restric- . • tion Bill was moved in the 'Council by the ; Minister for Education, whose speech r covered the old grounds of objection to '- Chinese and Japanese on the grounds of the necessity of maintaining racial purity and ■ morality, and the tendency to lower the rate of wageß. The Hon. Mr Walker opposed it as cruel ■ '■". and -dangerously cruel, because it would keep out a useful class, though he would not 1 like the. colony to be swamped by them, {The Hindoos and Parsees who came here • were a happy and by no means objectionable /race; ' The Hon. Mr Shrimski, who last year championed the Chinese against their opponents, quoted figures to show that since ' 1881, when there were 5004 Chinese in the colony, the number had dropped yearly -till ■in 1896 they only numbered 3685. Though at £10' a head they were objectionable, the .Government with an empty treasury would 'not object to them at £100. The sßill was only intended to catch votes at the general ; election, and was not required, for which ' reason be moved that it be read six months hence. , '

. The Hon. Dr Grace said it was ridiculous . for the colony to aßßume that it could restrict Her Majesty's British subjects, which waß a . monstrous proposal. \ The Hon. Mr Rigg claimed- the right to exclude any class of subjects, a right which bad been exercised in these colonies. Those who supported Chinese were as a rule the ■ people who got higher rents from them than they could from Europeans, for which reason they should be looked on with contempt. He would like to see' similar provisions in the Bill to that in . the New South Wales Act, by- which they are refused naturalisation papers and prevented' from engaging in mining operations. . • . • Sir George Whitmore agreed that it was desirable to stop too great immigration of Chinese, but believed that the Bill was due to most unworthy motives, and the only - - objections at present were purely theoretical. He believed that the poll tax should be £50, and for this be would vote in committee if " the amendment was withdrawn. The Hon. Mr Arkwright considered that ' the scope of the Bill was rather too wide, but that could be altered in committee. The ' - proposal to include natives of India would endanger the Bill, and probably cause it to ' be reserved for the Royal assent, but as far * as Chinese and Japanese were concerned he .'' : would vote for the Bill. Even if brought in . for electioneering purposes it only showed that the Ministry believed that a majority of ' the people of the colony desired such a ' . measure. * The Hon. Mr Bowen contended that the ' success of British colonization was due to the ■ ' exclusion of no one, and though it might be eight to restrict numbers of Chinese, an „ apparent danger existed, and he thought the Bill bad no Buch justification. The colony was in hopes that Japan would form a good customer for our wool, and it was not the ' ' way to encourage this to say that the Japanese Were not to land here. In the ' event of war, which might involve the whole .. of the southern hemisphere, we might be • .. glad to have an alliance with Japan on account of her navy. Any dangerous incursion of undesirable immigrants we would ■ ' be willing to help to legislate against. Tho Hon. Mr Pharazyn oppoaed the second reading, and the Hon, Mr Mont- . ( gomery, in support of it, quoted opinions '•" from a recent work of travel to show that it * was absolutely necessary to exclude them, * as it was impossible to compete with them. • In his opinion the measure should only apply ' to Chinese. The Hon. Mr Stewart showed that since ' „ 1881, when the Chinese Restriction Act was " ' carried by the Hall Government, there had " ' been a measure of this kind on the statute "book, but be contended that though that Bill Was considered unwise and indefensible ' ," legislation by some, if it came from a branch "'■-'. of the Legislature more likely to be in closer ■ -"': 7,;tduch with the people, the Council should be " ■ lohary of opposing it. f% ■ '- The Hon. Mr Kelly spoke in favor of the > Bill and the Hon. Mr MoLcan against, pointing out that aliens who had driven out • '.'.'the Chinese in California were not included : ; X -.in ib M undesirable immigrants. As Japan "/-was becoming a maritime nation, it was V^ perhaps dangerous to include Japanese in -•'''■t\ the/ measure; He suggested delaying the *"V vßill for a week till the Undesirable Imvni'sr;''" grants Bill came down, and moved the : i '-'M iftdionrnment of the debate. 'M'}'- -On division the amendment was lost by

The Hons. Kerr, Jennings, and Jenkinson who continued the debate, favored a tax o: £500. The adjournment of the debate till Tues day was then moved by the Hon. G. Joneß QUESTIONS. Miniaterß in answer to questions statet inter alia that Government would introduci a Bill to enable settlers to combine togethei and obtain money under the Loans to Loca Bodies Act foe the purpose of procuring win netting for their farms, than Goveromenl would take into serious consideration thi startling fact disclosed by the census return) that the male population of the colony exceeds the female population by fort} thousand persons ; that Government were o: opinion that something required to be don< in the direction of having the books of com parties registered under the Companies oi Banks Acts, audited by Government auditors and their assets valued by Governmenl valuators ; that nothing had been don< towards getting reserves as an endowmenl for the University of the middle district oJ New Zealand, and Government were opposed to _ granting land as an endowment foi universities, as these endowments had beet mismanaged in the past ; that Governmenl had not yet taken steps to divide the colon} into electoral districts in accordance witl: the census of this year, as the complete returns were not quite ready, but Govern ment intended to take the House into theii full confidence on the matter before the close of the session. THE SEIZURE OP SINKING FUNDS. The seizure of local bodies sinking fund: was recalled to members by Mr G. W. Smitfc asking if the Government intended this yeai to follow the course adopted last year with reference to the funds. The Treasurer fenced the question by pretending not to see the insinuation contained in the suggestion, He thought Mr Smith should have thrown a little light on the subject. He assured the lion, gentleman, however, that if his question meant did Government intend to act in strict accordance with the law, his answer would be an affirmative answer. MUNICIPAL FRANCHISE. To Mr Collins, who invited the Government to introduce a short Bill enacting that all future municipal elections shall be conducted on the basis of household suffrage, the Premier said that if they were unable to pass the Local Government Bill this session he thought they ought to provide that elections for municipalities should take place on an enlarged franchise. Members generally appeared to endorse the opinion. BANK BILL. Dr Newman was informed by the Treasurer that an Act would be passed this session making it clear that the Bank of New Zealaud had to pay the interest on the £500,000 worth of debentures issued to the bank by the Government without the necessity of the shareholders voting the payment of the interest. He admitted that notwithstanding the number of legal gentlemen in the House the question of the interest payment had escaped notice. The payment of interest should be made by the bank and not be voted by the shareholders. RED TAPE. What may happen to petitions over which the promoters take a deal of trouble was shown yesterday by the rejection by the Petitions Classification Committee of a petition from Stratford, attached to which were fourteen foolscap pages of signatures, because on the sheet on which the petition ia written there were no signatures. As it referred to a man suffering three years imprisonment in gaol, it looks as if that unfortunate man may remain there on account of red tapeism. JOTTINGS. " I never knew a Colonial Treasurer so ignorant of of the finances of the colony " — Sir R. Stout on Mr Seddon. The number of Chinese in the colony, according to Mr Shrimski, has fallen from from 5004 in 1881 to 3685 iv 1896. The Hon. Mr Montgomery says that Victoria, with a population of slightly over 1,000,000, has nearly 10,000 Chinese. The Hon. Mr Downie Stewart's name waa repeatedly associated during the recess in certain quarters with the vacant AttorneyGeneralship, and since his arrival here a few days ago he has shown a decided leaning In favor of the Government, his views being that the Council should not be driven by public opinion, but should adopt such measures as the CD. Act Repeal Bill and Asiatic Restriction Bill because they came from a Chamber supposed to be in closer touch with the public than the Council. The Hon. Geo. Jones: Are we to bring our morals down to the standard of cabbages and sell them for the price of vegetables. The Premier says subscriptions are being raised by the Post and Telegraph Department officers for the purpose of presenting the ex-Postmaster-General, Mr Ward, with a testimonial, and he fails to see what exception can be taken to so laudable a movement. Something like a threat was thrown out in the Council by Mr Jennings, who, in the course of the Asiatic Restriction debate, said that it the Bill was not carried, so strong was the feeling in the colony, the Government would have to enlarge the Chamber in order to make room for those who would help them. ■ ■ DAY SITTINGS. In submitting his motion for morning sittings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the Premier said that if the experiment did not prove a success it could be abandoned. He felt that late sittings and night Bittings were injurious to the health of members. Towards the close of last session morning sittings were tried, and proved conductive of good work being done. The effect of the motion waa that on the days named the House shall Bit at 10.30 a.m., and that no new business be taken after 10.30 p.m. - Captain Busßell pretested against the motion on the ground that it was an attempt to carry out a practice which Ministers had tried to foist on the House for a long time oi wearing members out by long hours. If the proposal were adopted very late sittings could still bo resorted to. There was no intimation as to when the suggested Bank Committee and other important committees were to sit. A surprise had been sptung on the House by the motion being brought on that night. The Premier said ho did not wish to take the House by surprise, and would consent to an adjournment of the matter. He understood that the House was unanimous in a desire for a change in the direction of morning sittings. Mr Tanner : " Not in this form." Mr Earnshaw : "This is the gag." Mr Tanner : " It is slavery." The matter was adjourned till Tuesday.