Parliamentary.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2113, 12 October 1875, Page 2

Parliamentary.

HOUSE OF EEPEESENTATIVES.

WELLINGTON. Monday. Mr Luclne gave notice to ask whether: the Government would relax telegraphiccharges on Press telegrams received during the day, so as to allow of five hundred words being sent at evening rates. A bill was read a first time enacting that any purchaser of land from the natives shall al?o pay so much per acre to the State. The Stamp Duties Act was passed. Mr Bridges, manager of the National Bank, was brought before the bar of the House attended by his counsel, and after being questioned by the Speaker, he made a statement to the effect that he had since ascertained that the statements he made before the Committee had been made upon erroneous information, though at the time he thought his statements were well founded. He now wished to retract all he had said. Mr Macandrew said the only pressure brought to bear upon the Government in the matter of the Port Chalmers railway had been by himself on behalf of the Provincial Council, and in the interests of the public. The bargain was an exceedingly good one for the Government, and the Bank of New Zealand had nothing to do with it. Messrs Eichardson and McGlashan corroborated Mr Macandrew's statement. The Hon. the Treasurer said he was not satisfied with this explanatioa .of so grave a matter, and hoped the House would sift the matter to the bottom. A bill is to be brought in indemnifying any witness who may give evidence before the House from all consequences, except for perjury, and when the bill is passed Mr Bridges will have to go before the Committee again, and disclose all he knows, if he has anything to disclose. Great interest was felt in the case, all the galleries being filled and the public gallery crowded.