PARLIAMENTARY

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 53, 17 September 1881, Page 12

PARLIAMENTARY

OVER THE SPEAKER'S CHAIR. BY ELEITBIC TFLEGBAPH. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

WELLINGTON, Thursday. Two Nights. — The Maori people on the East Coast want a harbour made at Gisborne, and agreed to grant a substantial landed endowment in aid of the project if the Government would give effect to their wishes. The Government disapproved of the undertaking on two grounds, viz.. it would aid the East Coast Land Company by giving additional value to the land the company propose to place in the market, and would withdraw from settlement an area which the Native Minister hoped to be able soon to place in the market. The Bill, however, passed through committee on Thursday night and Friday morning, despite the strenuous opposition of the Government, the Ministerial whip having neglected to keep a House for the purpose of securing a mechanical majority. The affair was not of much significance, but is worthy of close attention from what took place on the 'following day, when the Railway Construction Bill was passed through all its stages. The Government consoled themselves over the Gisborne Bill by the reflection that they could get it thrown out in another place, and therefore contented themselves with maintaining an attitude of sullen and silent resistance. The most interesting portion of the whole performance was a brief remark made to Rolleston by the late Government whip, Hursthousc. He was reclining at full length on a bench by the side of the Minister for Lands, and when the division that Rolleston had called for was announced, lie said in quiet tones, " Where is your majority now ?" Some years ago an undertaking fraught with the welfare of the North Island was steadily resisted by the Government of the day because the friends of the G-overnment were not" in it." I thought of this the other night when the resistance was going on, and, remembering how the Queen-street gang had tried to stifle the East Coast Land Company at its birth, Avondered when the day would arrive that we could hope to see honest legislation. A very different state of affairs was seen on Friday, when a measure was to be passed through the Lower House and confirmed by the Upper Chamber. It was of too much importance to be allowed to run the chance of fortuitous defeat, and so every contingency, barring the entrance of disaster, was carefully watched and provided for. When Rich was down here, some few weeks since, the prospectus of the Morrinsville and Rotorua line was seen by a few persons, but the intentions of the Government to include it in the schedule to the Railway Constructions Bill was only known to the elite in the Ministerial confidence ; yet this was done on Saturday morning about three a.m., and the whole jmrpose of the Railway Construction Bill entirely changed. There are manifold opinions entertained as to the policy of the Bill and its wisdom or unwisdom, according to the point of view from which the bill is regarded. One thing, however, was certain, viz., the Government had set their hearts upon the measure. Macandrew and Richardson had gone home to bed, thinking the Bill a harmless one, but not knowing the change that was intended to be made in the purport. I have studiously refrained from writing dull political telegrams or dealing with matters of policy this session, but now have to depart from my line of conduct. From the importance of the issues involved early in the evening in a full House, it was affirmed that no contract should be let until it had been approved by the General Assembly. At three o'clock on Saturday the Government majority decreed that the Government should have power during the recess to let contracts to the extent of some 500 miles. There were not half-a-dozen men in the House who knew the length of the lines proposed to be constructed. Very few men knew where Morrinsville Avas to be found on the map, and fewer still the position of Nelson Creek. There has been nothing like it in the House since members were invited more than ten years since to write down a list of what railroads they wanted for their various provincial districts, It is the simpler plan, perhaps, to show what the Bill enables to be done. When constructing this mileage of railways it enables the Government to let contracts without approval of Parliament. A company may let contracts to its own contractor ; the contractor may be the largest si iareholder in the company, 'it is possible to give a company 9600 acres of land for every mile of railway they construct. These lands' may be given to a company, and the Bill contains no settlement claims. Thirty per cent, of land in value may be given to the company on the cost of the construction of railways, and the price of the land (being fixed by arbitration) may not be more than a few shillings per acre. The Government may give the company constructing the Rotorua line (having little land in the vicinity of the line) land elscAvhere— in the Bay of Islands or Taranaki, for instance. In the South the Bill means again localising 50 per cent, of the Land Fund. Lands of private persons, and those belonging to the Government, may be rated to ensure 5 per cent, interest on the line, and those lands given to the company exempted from rating. It is said that the shareholders of these companies only get 15 per cent premium on their outlay, but in the first place they get the land absolutely, and when the lines are purchased from the company 85 per cent, of the cost of construction is paid to the builders of the railway, and they have their improved land (worth in 'most cases more than the railway itself) full 15 per cent, of its exchangeable value. All these things duly came out when the Bill had passed. Those who had gone home and were sleeping soundly when the new departure was taken, became wide awake enough when the thing was explained to them on Saturday morning. Boundless vistas of spoilage <and corruption have thus been thrown open by the last effort of a moribund Ministry. It was in vain that Thompson, SAvanson, Murray,

Montgomery, and others protested against the passing of the Bill in a thin House. There "were sufficient men, avlio wanted to roast an egg by the fire that Hall had kindled, to overcome all clamour and resistance, and so the Bill passed and became laAv, unless the Upper House determines to alter the provisions. This action affords a standing and sufficing proof that no member of the Legislature is safe in going to bed while any Ministry remains on the Treasury Benches with a majority at their disposal..