GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1129, 2 August 1883, Page 3

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, In the House on Tuesd ay,

Replying to Mr Morris, the Hon Mr Dick said that in the other Colonies it had been decided to quarantine imported dogs for six months, in view of the case of hydrophobia in New South Wales, and the same course would he followed in New Zealand.

The Hon Major Atkinson moved the second reading of the Property Tax Bill.

Mr Montgomery opposed the Bill. It taxed industries, persons who improved their land, and merchants and traders. A tax should be imposed on land so as to make people improve it. Railways had given land immense value and it was only fair that it should bear a portion of the taxation. One man improved his land, and was taxed in proportion to the value of these improvements, while perhaps his next neighbor left his land wholly unimproved, and the latter became valuable n proportion to the amount expended by the other. With a knowledge of that fact before them, it was ridiculous to expect that men of means would come to the colony when improvements were taxed. To tax the unimproved value of land would be fair, and if there was a deficiency an income tax should Le imposed. The expenditure was last year L 268,000 greater than the revenue. They had to borrow money to pay the interest on borrowed capital, and they could expect nothing but depression while such was the case.

Mr Dargaville also opposed the Bill. The Government consulted the interest of the Bank of New Zealand in preference to the interest of the Colony. Major Atkinson, ho said, was only the willing tool of the financial ring of Auckland. The time had arrived whan they should say ‘we will no longer 10 be governed by this financial ring.’ He said that the Premier and his partnif Mr Russell had got LIO,OOO from the Bank for getting the Legislature to pass a Consolidation Act. It was a shame and a scandal that the Premier’s name should appear on the prospectus of the New Zealand Mortgage Company. He warned the Government that the position in which they stood was not as stable a one as they imagined. It could not be when its foundations were class legislation, financial terrorism, political corruption, and public wrong, all tending to selfish aggrandisement, Mr Turnbull also opposed the motion and contended that the expenditure should be reduced.

Major Atkinson replied. As a matter of fact he (Major Atkinson) had voted steadily against the measure referred to by Mr Dargav ille. The Premier was not in cither Houses of the Legislative when it was passed. He challenged Mr Dargaville to call for a Committee to enquire into the truth or falsehood rf the charges he had made as to the Premier receiving a reward for the passing of that Act. Ho had nothing to do with it. If Mr Dargaville di not move for such a Committee he would move for one himself. He also accused Mr Montgomery of having misstated tacts, and defended the Bill at considerable length. The second reading of the Property Tax Bill was then carried.

The following is the division list, AYES. Allwright Mcllwraith Atkinson McMillan Boetham Mitchelson Bryce Morris Buchanan, W.C. Munro Conolly Peacock Dick Pearson Dodson Petrie Driver Pastlethwaite Fergus Rolleston Fitzgerald Shaw Fulton Shephard Green, M. W. Stevens Hamlin Sutter Hobbs Sutton Hursthouse Swanson Johnston, C. J. Tawhiao Johnston, W. W. Thomson Kelly Tomoana Lee Trimble Levestam Whitaker McKenzie, F. W. Whyte, J. B. Mason Wilson, J. G. McDonald Wright. NOES. Barron Bathgate Joyce Bracken Macnndrew Brown, J. 0, McDonald, A. Cadraan McKenzie, J. Daniel Montgomery Dargaville Moss De Lautour PiUiet Duncan Seddon Feldwick Sheehan Fish Sbrimski George Smith Q re y To Wheoro Harris Thomson, J, W. Holmes Tolo Hutchisw. Turnbull.

Mr Dargaville said lie would accept Major Atkinson’s challenge and raovcfor a Committee to enquire into the Loan Consolidation transactions of 1867. In the Bankruptcy Act,

On clause 139 the Hon Mr Conolly proposed the following addition : —‘ All costs, charges, allowances, and expenses properly incurred by or payable by the assignee in the execution of bis office under this Act shall be paid in priority of any debts,’ The Committee divided —Ayes 34, Noes, 28.

The following was also added to the clause : ‘ All wages of any artisan, labourer or workman, whether skilled or unskilled, in the employment of the bankrupt at piece-work at the date the adjudication, and not exceeding the amount earned at such piece-work the three months preceding such order.’ Other Bills having been considered in Committee, the House rose at 12.5.