POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Western Star, Issue 2218, 1 July 1898, Page 7

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

WALLACE MATTERS. Residents at Eastern Bush have forwarded a petition to Parliament praying for a light line from Waic do to Merrivale. Tliis has been presented by the member. Mr Gilfedder presented a petition from residents at Preservation Inlet asking for £IOO subsidy towards the maintenance of a medical practitioner. The member for the district has asked for £750 to be placed on the Estimates for a road from Colac to Bound Hill, and also for a sum for tho erection of a post and telegraph office at Otautau.

Mr Kelly is asking for a return showing (1) the cost of Beaumont Estate since the date of its purchase (2) the number of sections taken up; with the acreage of same 5 (3) ihe amount received by way of rent up to and including Ist July, 1898. Mr Parata is asking what progress is being made in the survey of sections set aside for the landless Maoris in the Waiau district. Mr Gilfedder is to ask the Minister for Eailways if it is true that the contract for the supply of coal to the railway department by the Nightcaps Coal Company has this year been diminished by 3000 tons, whilst the amount of coal taken from the Kaitangata remains the same as on the previous year, and if so, will he give instructions that next year the Nightcaps Coal Compauy get a contract for their former supply. A petition has been presented by Mr Gilfedder signed by 139 residents for a railway station at South Riverton. Mr Gilfedder is asking for a telephone from Colac Bay to Round Hill, sheep-loading yards at Balfour, a forest reserve for miners, the extension of the powers of land boards to enable them to adjust the rents of Crown tenants, concessions to sleeper squarers and their prompt payment, the cost of the rabbit department, and if the minister will amend the rabbit Act so as to curtail the powers of inspectors. _ GENERAL.

Mr Ward presented several petitions from Awarna residents on land contiguous to and in the vicinity of the Bluff line praying that it be fenced. . Captain Jackson Barry, now in his eightieth year, is petitioning the colony to grant him some monetary reward in consideration of his services to the colony. In accordance with the reconi mendations of the Land Purchase Commission's the Government have decided to offer £lO 10s an acre for the Taipo estate near Oaraaru. A subsidy of pound for pound up £9lO is to he paid by the Government to the Dunedin Tochmca Schools. Mr Ward is asking whether tbe Minister for Lands is agreeable to the substitution of elective land boards fer nominative boards. Mr Guiness is to ask tbe Treasurer whether the Government will place a sum of £2OOO on the Estimates as a subsidy for distribution amongst the country libraries in tbe colony. Mr McNab is introducing an absolute majority bill. Tho Premier’s Local Government Reform BUI provides that any proposals submitted to the votes of the ratepayers of a district or subdivision of a district shall be deemed to be carried if, on a vote being taken, tho number of valid votes recorded in favor of the proposal exceeds the number of valid votes recorded against it without reference to the poll. The Premier announced that the new feature of the Master and Apprentice Bill is tho provision giving the Conciliation Boards and Court of Arbitration power to fix the number of apprentices in the various trades. The other provisions of the Bill are well known. Mr Ward wishes Stewart Island and the mainland connected by telephone cable. . .. One of the most important matters to come before Parliament is the question of an “ all red ” cable across the Pacific. Mr O’Regan is to ask the Government if, in view of the buoyant state of the colony’s finances and the continual decline of wages throughout

the colony, they are prepared to make a substantial reduction in the Customs duties on food, clothing, and other of the necessaries of life. Last year £90,000 was drawn in duty on apparel and slops. Boots and shoes gave £27,000, cutlery £4OOO, refined sugar £140,000, treacle £4OOO, tea £76,000 so that wage-earners, who use large quantities of these dutiable goods, would be greatly benefitted. According to the Premier, the whole of the vote of £60,000 made last session for opening up tourist resorts in tho colony has been expended. A Medical Practitioners Amendment Bill is to be introduced. It sets out the qua ifications required, and provides that the registration may be cancelled if a doctor is proved unqualified or may be suspended or cancelled for crime or misconduct. The Liquidation Reform Bill provides for companies being liquidated by the official assignees instead of by the present system. The Supreme Court Act Amendment Bill provides that judges hereafter appointed shall cease to hold office on attaining the age of 75. Writes the Dunedin Star correspondent ; —Among the matters considerrd at the Opposition caucus was the question of the constitution of sessional committees were proportioned with consideraly more fairness than last year, yet iu respect to two of the most important—namely the Public Accounts and the Native Affairs Committees—the relative strength of members thereon is decidedly in favor of the Government. The Native Affairs Committee, in view of the largo Native proposals to be brought down this session, is the most important of sessional committees, and it is proposed to give the Government eleven members and He Opposition only five. On the Public accounts Committee there are eight Government supporters, five < Ippositionists, and orte member of the Left Wing. It is understood that the Opposition will take a firm stand in this matter, and claim representation in proportion to their strength in the House.