PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9840, 5 September 1903, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. THE CITY ELECTORATES. "I believe the time is coming," said Mr Taylor last niglit, "when a man who is simply a Government nominee will stand little chance of getting into tne House." It was, lie went on to say, quite likely that the Bill had been arranged for by the Liberal and Labor Federation, which had taken the wholecontrol of Parliamentary matters into its own hands recently. In Wellington it was an obscure and mysterious organisation. There was something esoteric about its methods. ''You have to be initiated before you can piss through its portals, and become a full-blown member." The Premier had neglected his duties for four or five days, and it was quite on the cards that this Bill had been introduced at tlio dictation of that organisation. That Federation might be going to destroy this Parliament in its infancy, and il that was done it would make the manipulation of electorates much easier by political organisations like tlte Liberal and Labor Federation, because there is more room lor corruption in a small electorate than there is in a large one. "I know a little about electioneering dodges from heresay," continued Mr Taylor, but a..ny "tips" he might have Jiad to give to the House on this subject were cut short by the ringing of the time- bell. INCONSISTENT. An interested person who heard Mr Fowlds speaking against the City Single Electorates Bill looked up tliat member's electioneering speeches. He found that when Mr Fowlds decided no longer to woo the suffrages of the electors of Auckland, but to go for the suburbs, he told the voters of Grey Lynn that he was, after three years' experience, not at all impressed with the triple electorates system, and that he was glad to embrace the opportunity of standing for a single electorate. Faced with this seeming inconsistency, Mr Fowlds turned it to his own advantage rather astutely. He admitted tha charge, but urged that while he was in favor of single electorates as against triple electorates, he was still more in favor of wider electorates than either, and so he went on to his favorite theme of large electoral districts and proportional representation and effective voting on the lines of a Bill which is in his mine on the order paper. A SENSIBLE ALTERATION. The Orders provide that on Tuesdays the House can go into Supply without the opportunity of an interception amendment. As the estimates invariably mean a late sitting, members a.re exhausted in the first sitting's day of the week. The Premier struck a sympathetic chord when lie said he hoped to see the Standing Orders amended so> as to substitute Friday for Tuesday as the day when the estimates could be fc taken without an intercepting amendment to supply. In that case members would have Saturday to recuperate. "SATAN REPROVING SIN." Much of the time wasted during the session is attributable to the amount of iinmec.fci3Sa.ry talk, indulged in by the Premier, which, provokes replies from members on both sides of th? House. Some amusement was therefore created yesterday iiiternxmn, when Mr Seddon seriously suggested that in order to prevent a recurrence of the late sittings of the pnst. fortnight, the public galleries should be closed .after 9 p.m. At present the jjroceedjngs between 7.30 and 10 o'clock did not, he declared, "constitute a meeting of Parliament, but simply resolved themselves into a public meeting. THE COST OF GOVERNMENT. The Hon. J. M. Twomey yesterday afternoon gave notice to move for a return, showing the average daily cost of Parliament while in session, such return to include Ministerial salaries and payment of members, Speakers, and Chairmen of Committees, statutory, permanent and sessional officers, Hansard and Committee reporters, messengers, attendants, and servants of all descriptions, the cost of Hansard, fuel, lighting, and all expenses incurred on account of the session, such return to show separately the cost of eaqh branch of the Legislature. JOTTINGS. lhe Premier: "We have been over two months in session, and we have not done much except talk." "Hear, hear," from all sides of the House. Next Wednesday has been spared for private members' business, but thereafter Government business .will have precedence every sitting day for the rest of tlie session. Hon. members describe our attitude as stonewall, bub it is the only means left to a. sinaJl minority to prevent their being gagged.— -Mr Fowlds. Sir W. R. Russell yesterday gave notice- of the introduction of 'the Wa.iroa Harbor Board Empowering and Loan 1 Bill. From Australia private advice has been received that Mr Brown, a member of the Arbitration Court, has quite recovered from his late serious illness. He reaches Auckland on Monday next, and will be able to take part in the sitting of the Arbitration Court to be held tare on the 24th. Apparently there will be no necessity now to appoint a deputy for Mr Brown, which was the object of the Arbitration Court Emergency Bill, passed in. Parliament last week as >r. matter of urgency. The Testators Family Amendment Bill and the Police.Offences Amendment Bill, the latter regulating the hours of closing public billiard rooms, Prohibiting the ! use of words denoting Governiiient patronage of any business without authority, and further regulating footpath* traffic, were read a second time in the Council yesterday, i