Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23,1897.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8096, 23 December 1897, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1897.

THE ACTS OF THE SESSION.

Parliament having closed, people will naturally want to know what new legislation has been framed for their government, ami we therefore propose to give a short summary of the Acts that have been placed upon the statute book during the session. As we have already pointed out, it has been an unusually barren session. Of what may be called policy measures, not one has been passed, and the forty odd enactments that have been made are of a singularly unimportant and even trivial nature. For once in the regime of the Seddon Ministry a session has passed without any labor legislation, though several measures dealing with the relations beween employers and employed were attempted. The principal Acts of the session uro of a financial character. One, the Aid to Public Works and Land Settlement Act Amendment Act, continues the public works loan policy embarked upon the previous year by authorising the raising of another quarter of a million, in addition to the million loan of last year. The bulk of the money is to be expended in much-needed repairs to the railway lines of the colony, purchase of new rolling stock, and otherwise to improve the conditions of our New Zealand railway system. Fifty thousand pounds of the amount is to be devoted to education, .£25,000 for the erection, extension, and repair of school buildings in Native, newly settled and other districts, and £25, 0U0 for the establishment and equipment of technical schools, to which it is proposed to grant more liberal subsidies than in the past. The Government Emergency Loans to Local Bodies Act is a measure specially designed for providing relief to the districts wliich were devastated by Hood last year, but intended lo be of general application. It provides that in any case where the Colonial Treasurer is satisfied that by reason of fire, flood, or other casualty or special emergency the maximum amount wliich lie is lawfully empowered to lend to local bodies may be extended to three times such maximum. The Consolidated Stock Act Amendment Act concedes a principle for which the members of the Opposition have been fighting for years, namely, that the sinking funds of local bodies' loans shall not be pledged or appropriated by the Government. After deliberately "collaring" nil the sinking funds available, the Govern,

ment have repented them of the evil, and by this Act they prevent their successors following in their' footsteps. It is a pity, for the sake of sound finance, that they could not be made to disgorge and restore llie sinking funds that have been so misappropriated. More power to borrow further evidence of the spendthrift policy of the Government — is given in the Land for Settlement Act Amendment Aot, which extends the power of the Government to borrow for land for settlement purposes from £250,000 to £500,000 a year. We should think that butore Parliament gave such liberal powers to the Minister to buy up private estates it would have insisted I that large districts such as this, in which there are hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin country available for settlement, should be first opened up and developed. The Cyanide Process Gold Extraction Act authorises the payment of £10,000 to Cassels Company for patent rights, and provides various regulations for the use of this splendid process of gold extraction. The Land and Income Assessment. Act is a consolidation of various statutes relating to taxation, and gives the taxgatherer still more inquisitorial power than he already possesses. Of course there is no reduction of taxation— that is beyond hope. The usual Imprest Supply Bills and Appropriation Act, providing for payment of salaries to civil servants, and appropriation of Parliamentary votes by various departments, have been passed. No alteration of conseseijucncc is made in the mining law, though a Mining Companies Acts Amendment Act. which is of a technical character, appears upon the Statute Book. In consequence of complaints that have been received from the Auckland province of mines being kept going all day Sunday and miners having no day of rest, the Sunday Labor in Mines Prevention Act has been passed. The Members, of the House of Representatives Disqualification Act is designed to prevent in future the scandal of having an uncertificated bankrupt elected to the House of Representatives. The Awarua Seat Enquiry Act, passed early in the session, showed the necessity of an amendment in the law in this direction. The Fisheries Encouragement Act Amendment Act extends until tho year IHOO the offer of a bonus of Id per Ib on canned and cured fisli exported from the colony. Complaints were made recently that dangerous explosives intended for use in blasting operations on the goldfields were being landed on Auckland wharf from foreign countries. The Minister takes power under the Explosives Act Amendment Act to authorise the rejectmont of such dangerous goods. The Public School Teachers Incorporation and Court of Appeal Act Amendment Bill deals with the dismissal of teachers by Education Boards, and provides that the Teachers' Court of Appeal in hearing appeals shall take cognizance (1) i of the efficient and economical administration of the "Board s affairs, (2) the fitness of the teacher, (3) his conduct, (4) any other special circumstances. A system of classification in the railway service has been established, which is not altogether satisfactory, as it prevents capable young men being tranferied from one branch of the service to another. The Native Land Laws Bill as introduced simply provided for the rectification of an error mode last year by which the completion of mortgages of large areas of land was allowed, but the Bill as amended has not yet reached us. The other Acts passed are of a purely local nature, and there can be no interest in them in this district.