PARLIAMENT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12824, 17 October 1911, Page 8

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

WELLINGTON, October 16 The House met at 7.30. RAILWAY MATTERS. ..

The Hon^ Millar, replying to a question by Mr. Hine, said he .understood .that the Government had been said .to have changed its mind with regard to the hearing of the petition of the. Second Division of railway -men1. The. "Government had not changed * its mind in the matter; in fact, the committee was ready now to go on ,:with the Second Division and continue- until sufficient evidence had been heard. The cause of delay in the hearing of the First Division petition was that every latitude, had been allowed and witnesses had been by the employees on every point. The Department had to bring witnesses in a similar manner and it would do so throughout. It rested with; the railway men whether the matter was: finished this session or not. If the men sent witnesses on all points, the Department would have to do the same, and there would necessarily .be delay. . •

Replying to Mr. Wilford, the Hon. Millar said the Railway Bill would be brought down in a couple of; days.

The Native Land Claims Bill was read a first time.

Mr. Davey, chairman of the Committee enquiring into the Taupo Totara Company's petition, read a statement made, in a Rotorua paper by TVIr; Raw, a member of the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce, in which it was stated; that Rotorua had no friends in Parliament; that during the taking of the-evidence Mr. Dalziell was allowed to interject by way o£ .commentar'Jf ; on the statement of witnesses, also that Mr. McDonald had sounded members of the House and Called'a meeting in relation to the enquiry and then set up a Commission. Mr; Raw further stated tire? report was a foregone conclusion. Mr. Davey, said the statement that Mtv McD6riald:'called ameeting of the House to discuss the petition and then set. ; iip the Committee was. absolutely false. ''■ Practically the whole of the statement was ihcprre'ct.' Mr. McDonald said he had asked a few members if they Were willing to act on' a" committee, if nominated. Nothing further.; , • : T^ie Hon. T. Mackenzie said the Rotorua Chamber, of Commerce was politically" biassed and failed to recognjse what, had been done. \

■The speaker announced that he had decided to allow bills to be put through all stages at one sitting.

The Prime Minister moved the second I'eading of the Old Age Pensions Amendment Bill. The principal clause.provides that any person who, being a male, has reached 60, or a female 55 years, and has dependent on him or her two or more children, Khali be entitled to a pension, the amount of the pension to be as prescribed by the principle Act, with the -addition that such sum .does not exceed £13..

Mr. Fisher asked that Imperial pensions should be exempt under the Act. .

Mr. Wilford suggested that railway superannuation should apply in a similar manner.

Mr. Hogan thought the scheme should be extended to the indigent at 60, the blind, the maimed, the crippled and the deformed.

Sir Jos. Ward, in reply, said the question of applying the system to railway men superannuated was all a matter of money. Last year the •scheme had cost £380,000. This year the expenditure would be over £400,000, plus £55.000 for pensions to widows. The Bill was. an enoi> imbus advance in legislation dealing with pensions.