THE MEMBER FOR MASTERTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8277, 19 October 1905, Page 5

THE MEMBER FOR MASTERTON.

AYe make the following extracts from yesterday's Supplementary Order Paper :— Mr Hogg to ask the Government—(l.) If they are aware that, at the Congress of the International Ornithological Association held in June last, it was alleged that the petrels and penguins on the Auckland and Macquarie Islands, both of which are controlled by the New Zealand Government, aie undergoing wholesale and indiscriminate destruction; that incredible cruelty in the slaughter of the birds was alleged ; the penguins, in order to save time, being driven along planks and precipitated into a boiling cauldron; that a syndicate has been formed to supply the world with penguin-oil, and some hundreds of tons, tho produce of millions of birds, has been placed on the market; and that it is feared that if this slaughter is continued these birds will become extinct? (2.) If the inquiries and information on tho subject, which were premised the Hon. T. Kelly, havo been made and obtained; and whether, as the result, the Macquarie Island has been leased to an oil-manufacturer by the Tasmanian Government? (10th October.) Reply.—(l.) Yes ; the Government are aware that such representations have been made, but they appear to have been based upon insufficient information as regards islands belonging to New (2.) Inquiry has been made and some information has been obtained. In the first place no wholesale slaughter of penguins has taken place, or is likely to take place, on the Auckland Islands or any of the islands belonging to New Zealand. There has been no perceptible diminution of tho number of penguins on the islands belonging to New Zealand, and, consequently, no danger of the extermination of the birds en those islands. In the second place, the Macquarie Islands mentioned in the questicn belong to the State of Tasmania, and the New Zealand Government has consequently no jurisdiction as regards them. It is understood that representations have been made to the Tasmanian Government who will, no doubt, if they consider it necessary, make such inquiry and take such action as' may be deemed advisable.

Mr Hogg to ask the Minister for Railways—(l.) If it is true that the rents charged by the Railway Department for dwellings occupied by platelayers and surfacemenhave lately been increased, although no additional expenditure has been incurred on the buildings? (2). Have the privilege tickets and passes that used to be issued to the workers in ballast gangs been stopped since the pay of the men was increased to 8s a day ? (3.) Are the workers in these gangs—who are nearly all men with wives and families, whose fay, owing to broken weather, does not average £2 per week—compelled to observe Labour Day as a legal holiday, and deprived of thci pay in consequence ? (1 lfh October.) _ Reply.—(l.) The rents of railway dwellings have not been raised unless the houses occupied by the men have been materially improved; and in such cases a small addition of rent is made, but in no instance is the rent charged by the Department a high one. Taking the accommodation provided, it may be stated that generally the rents charged by the Railway Department for its houses are much lower than those charged by private individuals under similar circumstances. As a consequence, railway houses are much sought after by the men employed in the service. (2.) Men who are paid an hourly rate are not entitled to privilege tickets under the regulations, consequently when men who were formerly paid at 7s per day were paid at the rate of Is per hour tl c privileges they had previously enjoyed under the regulations ceased; and they are now on the same footing as the casual" men working in the goods-shed who are paid at the rate of Is per hour, but who do not get other privileges which are given to railway men employed at a daily or yearly rate of pay. I am, however, considering "whether those men who are practically permanent, though paid at an hourly rate, should not be placed in the same position as the regular staff. (3) Labour Day is recognised "as a statutory holiday for railway men. All men who arc entitled thereto, and who can be spared from the work, are let off on that day. Following this practice, Labour Day is observed as a close holiday in so far as the ballast gang is concerned, and the train does not work on that day.

Mr Hogg to ask the Colonial Secretary, If he will consider the desirability of securing for aliens naturalised as British subjects within the Colony the rights of naturalisation throughout the British Empire ? (13th October.)

Reply.—This matter was one of the questions discussed at the Conference bstween the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Prime Ministers of the self-govern-ing colonies in 1902, but no resolution was passed. The Government does not consider it advisable to move further in the matter at present, but to leave the law in New Zealand as it stands. The whole question was gone into fully in the Legislative Council on the 22nd August of this year, and the views of the Government fully set out by the AttorneyGeneral.