POLITICAL NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 49, Issue 14960, 11 July 1923, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

NOXIOUS WEEDS. Several amendments to the existing law are proposed by the Noxious Weeds Amendment Bill, which was read a first'' time in the House yesterday. The definition of clearing is altered, so that the dealing with the pest must be such as to prevent its spread by seeding or otherwise. The local authorities may declare weeds to be not noxious in their district, but from this provision blackberry is excepted.

“ ‘DUNNO’ WHERE THEY ARE.”

“We find Ministers of the Reform Party slipping from department to department, resting awhile, and then flying away to another department until it puzzles even one who is conversant with the political affairs of the country to distinguish whether the Prime Minister or some other Minister is, for the time being, in charge of a particular department,” declared the Leader of the Opposition (Mr T. M. Wilford), in the course of the financial debate last night. That, no doubt, he added, largely contributed to the unsatisfactory state of affairs existing today. *

ONE HOUSE, SEVEN FAMILIES:

Mr L. Mellvride, M.P., stated in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, in the course of the debate on the State Advances Amendment Bill, that he had recently called upon a friend of his in Napier, and found that he, his wife, and two children were all living in one room, which contained two beds, the §tove, their food,(.cooking utensils, clothes, and everything. It was a ten-Toomed house, and in all there were seven families living in it. That sort of thing, he declared, ought not to exist in New Zealand. (Hear, hear.) There was only one bath for the seven families, and if you wanted a bath you had to give about a week’s notice (laughter); and only two conveniences.