HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 834, 18 July 1868, Page 3

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Thursday, July 9.— Mr. Stafford brought up a bill to enable Mete Kingi to take hia seat and vote in tho House of Representatives. Ho said that in consequence of Meto Kingi boing an assessor and in Government pay, ho was disqualified from taking his seat and voting by tho " Disqualification Aot, 1858," and as great misconception would arise among the Maori race if this representative could not take his seat after being elected, he had brought down this bill to remedy the defeot he bad spoken of. Tho bill waa read a first and seoond time. Papers laid on taVe : Despatches to and from tho Colonial Seoretary and tho Governor of New Zealand ; papers relative to the disallowanoo of publio Bills ; Abstract, &0., of Census ; Papers on the political and social aspect of the natives ; also a Report on Native Schools j Papere relative to the Postal Service; the Conveyanoo of Mails vid Suez Accounts for the financial year ending IB6G-7. • Friday. July 10. — 'The Houso wont into Committee on the Bill to admit Mote Kingi to the privileges of tho House. Tho Bill was reported without amondmeut read a third timo and passed. —Mr. Stafioed moved the address to Her

Majesty, on tho late attempted assassination of tho Duke of Edinburgh. — Several committees wero thon appointed.— Mr. Ball moved the formal address in rqply to his Excellency's speech at tho opening of Parliament, which waa aeoonded by Mr. Do,yam> Reid who said that tho tour round the Colony by his Excolloncy, would tend to make a unity ot tho Colony, nnd that thoProvinco ho camo from had determined to erect; a Government House. Taxation ho thought had'reacticd its very highest point, and ho would support any measure which would give tho poopltfa portion of tho land rovenue for local improvement. — Mr. Travers noted that thoro wero several omissions in tho address, amongst them ho noticod that the Governor had omitted to congratulate tho Houso on tho peaceful relations subsisting with tho native raco, tho omission was most romarkable in tho faco of a large force being sent to a part of the Provinoo of Wellington to presorvo peaco. — Mr. Retnolus and.Mr. Borlase agreod with tho last speaker wifch' reforonco to the omission. They also were of opinion that tho Westland Act was not only a lamcntab'o failure, but was an illegal Act,' and said that tho Government wore a ware of ir. — [lon. Mr. Ham. dofended tho Govern.mont, nnd said that thoro was nothing more than opiuiun against tho Act, nnd that opinion was' being testod. So far from it being a failure, ho said ie was acknowledged by persons who know about tho subject, that it wna a most decided success. — Mr. Gkaiiam was surprised that nothing was said in tho spoech about tbo Thames gold-field. — Mr. HAitefiTON regretted ho had not hoard tho remarks of tho hon.momber for Dunodia o« tho Westland Act, for ho bolioved ho know as much about the oporation of that Act as ho did about tho report of tho Pokaikai affair. Hon. members, he considered, found fault with what was not in the speech, because they found it difficut to find fault with what was thoro. — Mr. Joi.i.ie made some general remarks on tho speech. — The hon. Mr. Richmond explained as follows the recent murders df Patea .— " For two years past, knowing that tho district of tho West Coast was bat half conquered, tho Government had been most cautious not to do anything to provoko resentment or discontent. Recontly robberies of a kind which the Government had learned to bo a pert of a system, had been .'committed. It became absolutely necessary to arrest some of those porpetrators of crimes. Tho nnturo of those roberries were apparently a jtart of a plan to worry the sottlors out of the' district, and no Government could have contented itself with being indifferent while such crimes were growing into a Bystom. How far those occurrences might bo connectod with disaffection at the extremities of the Colony, he was not prepared to say. Thoy might have some connection. It was never dreamt that disoussion of the subject would not arise, but tho Government did not think it desirable to create alarm by a precipitate announcement. There had been no potting tho natives ; they were dealt with as human beings." — Mr. Ludlom and Mr. Brandon spoke principally about the defeots of the Westland . Act, the latter remarking that he thought the speech exceedingly bold. — Tho hon. Mr. Stafford said it was not the custom in speeches delivered by tho Crown to Parliament to commit tho Sovereign to an opinion as to tho future, therefore the Government did not expect an amendment. As to native matters, the Government did not believe there was ever likely to be oivil war j but outrages must bo regarded as engendering disaffection almost to hatred on the part of those who had been expelled from their lands by confiscation. The lands were taken and could not be given back, and Government must bo prepared to meet the hostility occasioned, or stand by|while crimes nothing short of atrocious murder were committed. The Government had never originated hostility against the natives ; it had rather submitted as a superior race could submit to something like affront. As to the Thames gold- field, almost the moment the speech waa spoken, it occurred to several members of the Government. He (Mr. Stafford) regretted tho omission sincerely. The Thames goldfield waa t» happy feature of the past 'year. As to tho occurrences at the Patea, would the hon. member for Newton go there and arrest" some of the offenders ?— [Mr. Graham : I.wjll assist J— A considerable portion of the natives wore fanatics. That was perhaps an isolated section. Tho hon. member for Newt6n thought there was, or'might be, an uniformity of good, and that ''ho -would argue with ttieth as reasonable men. So.long as tho hon. gentleman did' pot discriminate between the various compositions of men, so long would he be an unsafe guide to the' House, and .even to himself as an exponent of native opinions." — [Mr. Guaiiam regarded the native race as people of like passions with the Europeans.] — Mr. Camp, bell said that a petition- was being numerously signed in the Ornaru distriot, praying for separation from the Province of Otago. So long at £4,500 was proposed to be spent to build a house for tho Governor to reside in for a week once in three years, there was little to expect from such jan unproductive expenditure. — Mr. Bunni made a few remarks,' and Mr. Ball replied.— Tho address was then agreed to, which consisted of a formal reiteration of the Governor's speech to the Assembly.