PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12593, 6 September 1905, Page 8

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

From our Special Parliamentary

•Correspondent

By Telegraph

HOW THE AFTERNOON WENT.

■ WELLINGTON, September 4. > " That Voucher" 'brought a crowd into the lohbies once more, but itself. .dliQ^e, to go into the newspapers. In '.(he1.." Evening. .Post " appeared Mr .pPisHer's lap'ology to pie Premier and his ''&&.? fiogefcheiv' with his acceptance of %s&' fining,pf ,Mp Warhurton, also with ja,lreijuesb, " £oi^ /anather enquiry, to _enin whom he, has', sifcill '<bhfi.': greatest cbnfiaenoe, to 'clear their ..ali^^c^rs.". |EQ|l;!the pre^nC that, is, all' ,'.'. ithat;y^uphefi'*' except, the inci<seiitaT' criticisms tihat float'iftboiit the .lobbießj.>.'andvtihere as no admixture of /rkm'ours,;' Eypn Mr Taylor is,regarded 'aa ho^ ;a .leadihg 6aM; The Pre;mier,"it is (repiemberied, said I^'st ; week •thajt ;ith'e land .^^te jnust be got over firsj',. and =we are An 'the1 midst of'that ~detiaite. 'Before^ getting -po it.there was "a.; great-:, skirniisih- ovei- a, Wellington Land. Bioard case, :the main point of 'whjich for the general public is that it haa 'afforded ia'striking proof that undesc tfi© Land .Act there is an appeal against a forfeiture decision in the Land Board. One Eairfield Thomson was, 'after much skirmishing 'b&tween 'him and the Board, declared to have .forfeited a certain piece of land which'he had obtained in <tihe ordinary way from the Board near his holding. It was a question of residence, whether the tenant, was right in his allegation that the hut fee erected and the visits he paid constituted sufficient residence under the Act, or whether the Board wias right in holding such residence to be te6hnically insufficient. Both sides agreed that the main residence was not On the property in question. Mr Thomson, condemned by tlhe Board, appealed to the Supreme Court, and tlhe Court, deciding in his favour, (he got, back the land. The inevitable demand for compensation followed under various heads. The inevitable refusal came next from the Board. The inevitable petition to the House completed the trilogy. The Lands Comsnititee decided to recommend the petition t>o the favourable consideration of the Government. Advanced Liberalism awoke in the guise of Messrs Ell and the chairman of the committee. These wanted the report referred back to the committee, land for a- couple of hours or so we heard all the old familiar story of unscrupulous monopoly^ robbing a hungry horde of landless and-j meek starvlings, together with the old familiar contradictions of every point. Material and immaterial, and between them all (the agrarian war was prolonged, but the report was eventually tabled in safety. Nobody offered to bet on the amount of the £400 asked for by Mr Thompson, which the Government is likely to grant. The land debate followed, Mr Houston opening with a tirade against the extreme diffuseness with which .the Land Commission conducted the crossexamination of witnesses throughout his district. He averred that the members constantly, went outside the order of refei-ence 'and ilost themselves in attempts to convert to their views the witnesses who differed from them. Mr Lawry followed with a,bad cold and a subdued roar. Sir W. Steward, the possessor of a cold also, laboured with various things, mainly events in his own Parliamentary history. Mr Major was fanciful 'and pranciful. Both qualities carried him out of the pale with " a blackguard rush," the expression he used to describe the the 'leader of the Opposition had contributed to the debate. Mr Speaker intervened with unusual promptitude, and the fanciful prancer sat down as if struck by a wellaimed pile-driver. When allowed to get up again he withdrew, of course, explaining to 'Mr Massey that he hadn't used the term in the ordinary sense. He had really intended to be complementary. The House grinned as if to emphasize., its oonviotigij that members who a^e. fluent with difficulty ought to be very careful in their language. Mr Rutherford, on his side, joked as

usual, and this time with difficulty. Between them all these speakers took the debate away from the line of usual importance further than ever. The new Liberal party was conspicuous throughout the proceedings by the absence of all its strength of four. The wags declared they were in caucus.