PARLIAMENTARY NEWS. POLITICAL GOSSIP.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3794, 25 July 1881, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS. POLITICAL GOSSIP.

MR. READER WOOD'S OPINION OF THE MINISTRY. In speaking to the want of confidence motion in the Assembly, Mr. Reader Wood said if Mr. Ormond had not moved an amendment he would have done so. Last year the Government had withdrawn or dropped all their proposals without going to the country or resigning, and win' could they not do so again when they found" how very distasteful their proposals were. Hovvever, the passage of the present Bill was now impossible, whatever the fate of the amendment. The question of local government was evidently not in the Ministers' original programme for the session, as it was not introduced in the Governor's speech. Like retrenchment last session, it had been force I on them, or brought in for an election. As to all that had been said about Ministers settling the native difficulty, and Tawhaio's submission, he had received the following telegram from an influential member of the King party — " Do not believe anything you see in newspapers or are told from the Government or any other person. At the end of the movement you will know further." CONSOLIDATED ELECTORAL RIGHTS BILL. Sir George Grey has introduced a Bill to Consolidate Equai Electoral Rights. It con- ( tains but one clause, and runs thus :—": — " BVom and after the passing of this Act, no elector shall at any general or other election of members of the House of Representatives vote in respect of more than one electorate." BILL TO AMEND THE LAW OF EVIDENCE. Mr. Hutchison's Bill to amend the law of evidence sets forth in the preamble that it is necessary to free the discovery of truth in Courts of law from all restrictions ; and provides that any person charged with any offence shall be competent but not compellable to give evidence in any criminal proceeding arising thereout or therefrom, and whether for or against himself or herself ; and. the husband of any such person, if such person be a woman, and the wife of any such person, if such person be a man, shall also be competent but not compellable to give evidence in such proceedings, and whether for or against his wife or her husband, as the case may be. REPEAL BILLS. Two repeal bills introduced into the Upper House by the Hon. Mr. Whitaker have passed that branch of the Legislature, and sent down for consideration by the Representative Chamber. One is entitled Land Claims Settlement Acts Repeal, and repeals The Land Claims Settlement Act, 185G ; The Land Claims Settlement Extension Act, 1858 ; The Land Claims Act, 1878 ; The Native Land Act, 187c£ in part. The other repeals The Sharebrokers Act, 1871. NO FURTHER PENSIONS. Mr. Shrimski's Pension Bill will be, we understand, a short one of three clauses, providing that no further pensions shall be granted except by the express sanction of Parliament.