N.Z. PARLIAMENT.

Waikato Argus, Volume XV, Issue 6018, 15 July 1903, Page 2

N.Z. PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. YESTERDAY. The Council met at 2.30 p.m. LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES. In reply to a question, the AttorneyGeneral stated that a Bill was being prepared to provide more protection for life insurance policies against creditors. ADDRESS-IN • REPLY. The debate on the Address-in-reply was continued by Messrs Jones, Ormond and Colonel Pitt, and adjourned till next day. HOUSE OF KEPRESENTATIVES. YESTERDAY. The House met at !2.30 p m SECOND READING. The second reading of the Presbyterian College Site Bill, providing for the erection of a college at North East Valley, Dunedin, was carried on the voices without debate. ADDRESS-IN-REPLY. Mr Arnold resumed the debate on the Address-in-Reply. He said that if the Opposition would submit a policy more progressive than that of the Government he was prepared to cross the floor of the House and assist them to carry it out. He predicted that the great fight six years hence would be between the parties representing capital and labour. Mr Lang urged the more expeditious roadiog of back-country lands. The country settlers, he declared, had not been fairly treated by the Government, and in his own district (Waikato) tne state of things was simidy disgraceful. The Government had broken faith with the settlers placed en the land. Many of them when taking up their sections were shown roads in the course of construction, but since they got on the land the work had been stopped, and they had no means of access to their property. If the land in the King Country had been held by a Lrivate individual it would have been ready for profitable occupation long since. On the subject of the Legislative Council, he thought the best way would b" for both Houses to elect members of the Upper House by ballot, which would ensure the selection of men who had done good servioe to the colony, Mr Flatman said the roading of the back country could only be done by raising a large loan, and the Opposition reproached the Government with increas ing the public debt. He opposed the freehold. A man was happier under the lease in perpetuity than under a freehold tenure, as he was often, under the latter system, heavily mortgaged and up to his ey»B iu debt. Iu the evening the discussion was con* tinued by Messrs Bollard, Mills, Alison and Willis, and the debate waß further adjourned.