POLITICAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 8 September 1911, Page 5

POLITICAL.

NOTES BY THE WAY. According to a, reply made to Mr. Cl. W. ltd sseJl by ti)u iTiine Minister, Government business will bo given precedence for me rest or the session. 1 lie balance of tlie Crown land in the Taranaki district, in wnicii coal areas are included (extending from the Wanganui Itiver to Awakino) are (icing withheld from sale or disposal bocause of tno coal they contain. The purchase by tno Government cl' the lave Air. Jienham’s estate (ku(Jj acres) in the Kowai Bush district, for closer settlement, is under consideration. 'The Hon. George Fowlds took up his position as a private member when cue House met on Wednesday. Ho has selected a scat with, Messrs. G. \V. itusseli and George Hauronson on cither hand. 'Tno Government is considering the matter of subsidising the elicits to oroct a statue in Wellington in memory of tno late Mr. Edward Gibuon Wakefield. 'Tne cheap rates at which flowers and eggs are carried over tlie railways was elicited hy a question by Mr. Merries as to wnethor tliey could not bo pat on the same footing as regards iroighb charges. The Minister, replied that a package of cut llowerS- i\i ighing 281 b is at present carried one hundred miles for Sid, and two hundred miles for Is. Eggs are carried at a rate wnich averages slightly under Id per do::eu for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. The Government is considering whether any alteration should he made in the export duty on white pine. It, however, requires very careful consideration (said the Hon. H. Buddo) whether tlie present position warrants the extreme step ot prohibiting the exportation. The Hon. J. Rigg is not a supporter of private hospitals, says tlie "N.Z. Times,” His views wore briefly expressed in the Legislative Council during discussion on the clauses of the Mental .Defectives Till, which makes provision for private licensed mental Hospitals. Closer enquiry, said Air. Rigg, should ho made iyto the private hospitals of New Zealand, for in his opinion there ware far too many deaths in these institutions. Tim people generally, ho believed, were not aware of tho' number who died in them, because every care was taken that the public should not know. He was willing to concede that tho private hospitals were well conducted, but tho conditions were not > niparable with those of the public hospitals as far ns cleanliness and freedom of infection, and careful and devoted attention wore concerned. . THE BACK-BLOCKS. SETILERSMPETITIO N. Eleven village settlers, residing at Nireaha, about eight miles from i ketahuna, have petitioned Parliament under the following circumstances: — They state that about four years ago a hlQpk„of laud.,known as tho To|ani Reserve; ivas'xlisposed of in fifty-acre sections under the village regulations, and they became lessees. After their leases were issued, the Ekotahnna County Council informed them that •before a general rate that amounted to about £2 2s Od, oacli » ction was liable for a special into that came to about £3 14s. The rent required by the Lands Department ranged from 7 s 7d to 9s 2d per acre, a much higher price than was placed on other Crown land in the neighbourhood. Believing that the local authority could not legally enforce a special rate, of which they had no notice at the time when their leases were acquired, and which was levied on account of a loan contracted years previously, they resisted the demand, but the Council" was successful in the Magistrate’s Court. They complain that their rents arc hign, and xhe special rate amounting to about Is 6d per acre, or 20 per cent, addition to rent ,constitutes a serious injustice, and they say that unless relieved some of them will have to abandon their holdings. They ask, therefore, that their rents should bo reduced by an amount equal to what they arc compelled to nay as special rates, says the ‘‘N.Z. Times.”