TELEGRAPHIC

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 17 August 1872, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC

From the Uti.il >/ Southern Cross. PAULIAMENTARY NEWS. HOUSE OF RE PU E6 It! NT A' 11V E3. Wednesday. Mr. Curtis moved, " That in the opinion of this House, it is expedient that the Colonial Government, without divesting itself of responsibility for the proper conduct ot works authorised by the Oeneral Assembly, or of the existing Provincial organisations, and that the duties of Resident Ministers and General Ao-ents of the Colonial Government shall, in their respective provinces, devolve upon the Superintendents and Executives as Agents of the Colonial Government, unless otherwise determined by tho Colonial Government upon its responsibility." In doing so he submitted the motion to the consideration of the House from a firm conviction that a large policy of public works cannot be effectually or economically directed from one centre. To prevent it proving a disastrous failure it was absolutely necessary to bring local administration and supervision to aid. Clause 92 of the Act of 1 cS/0 vaguely rocognised this, and laid down the principles of his resolution, and under that clause the Government might do all he asked, or tney might appoint local ao-ents of their own. The latter plan would really establish two Provincial Governments in each province, and would not answer \ nor would a mixed Board of administration, partly Pioviucial and partly General, lhe only other plan was to avail themselves of the existing local organisations, and so avoid the necessity of maintaining duplicate staffs of clerks, &c. He believed that the views both of Centralists aud ultra-Provin-cialists had toned down within the last few years, and that it was now generally believed that Provincial Governments are necessary while large tracks of country remain unsettled. They should therefore be maintained in a state of efficiency. He always desired to see the Assembly assume all legislative powers, aud thus pave the way for the time when Provincial Governments will be altogether dis-

(jenseJ with iu favour of more numerous administrative bodies. Bat the real work of the province was to settle the- country ; and his motion only proposed to restore- to the provinces those powers wbica were taken awnv bv the legislation ot IS/0. .The .Assembly onlv should borrow, but iu the expenditure of the money local knowledge and. experience were absolutely necessary to effectually carrv oat public works. He did not pro-

JUJJU a JMLUW.—W H HI J 111 1 | 111 1 I ■■ II ' TTI — pose to enter upon the question whether the \ \ public works scheme hud been a success or I nut, but he believed that throughout the , ; colony there was ft strong feeling of dissatis- : faction at its administration. 1 lie Auckland i meeting, which unequivocally condemned this, < while refusing to express an opiuinn on his proposals, was the ouly legitimate expression of uublic opinion on the matter, for he at- ! tached little importance to newspaper articles. ; which often only represent**! the opinion ot a • small party or a .single individual. He had been asked whether the resolution meant that ; the Government; should delegate their power in every instance to or i should List! their own d'seretion in doing so. 1 The resolution was clea* 1 , and meant that, as , • a rule, the powers should be delegated, but ; in any case where there were valid reasons to . ; contrary the Government refuse the delegai tion if they were prepared to justify the ex- ! cepiion to Parliament. The motion was not i : of a party character —men ot all partus ; i would vote for and against it. It had not ; • been brought forward in a party spirit, and . ! he endeavouied to avoid all irritating allu- j ! sinus, but he iirmly believed the question ot j j ad mist,ra! ion was one of life or death to tiie | 'colony; and lie hoped the House would,; j without party spirit, arrive at the best and j wisest decision tor the colony as a whole, j The Hon. Mr. Fox said he would leave the ' House under no apprehension regarding the ! 1 meaning of the resolution, or the position i which the Government intendcl to assume 1 towards it. The object of the resolution was ; to restore to the provinces those powers taken from them by the 1 louse in lb/0. It meant the complete reversal ot the policy then decided upon. As originally introduced, ihe pubiic works policy contemplated sharing the powers to some extent with the province.-!, but during the discussion ot lb/O and lb/1, the House determined that above all things j the whole control and responsibility should j rest with the General Government —that there ' j shou'd be no butler to divide the responsioiiity i of the Ministry of Parliament. This was the | fundamental principle insisted on as the foundation of the policy then initiated, lo prove this he quoted at length ftom the " Hansard " reports of the speeches of Messrs. j Fi'zherbert, Sievens, Gillies, (Jailer, liavers, ' j and others. In the session of 18* 1 the House 1 j rejecte I the establishment of a Board of ! Works, although it would have been less ! evil in lightening tho responsibility of the | Government than the proposal now made 1 | He did not understand how they could rej linquish the control and retain the rtsponsiI bility, and under the resolutl n they would | iiave to give every Superintendent powers or ! come to a dead-lock or open warfare with i him. The Government opposed the motion | as a reversal ot the policy deliberately 1 adopted) as being contrary to public opinion | and impracticable alike in theory and action ' To assent to it would be to violate their ! pledges to the country, placing the Ministry I in a false position with the House, and ! although they could not treat it as a vote of j want of confidence in their personal ability, it j would be impossible for them to cany oil the : j business of the country, and they would, there- | fore; if the motion was carried, resign thenseats. I Mr. Gillies regrettel that flu Government had treated the motion, in which almost the ; existence —certainly the prosperous existence, of the colony was involved, in such a manner i in which they had condescended to misre- ) present its meaning. The motion said that f the duties and not the powers of the Resident j Ministers should devolve upon the Provincial i authorities. It was unfair and unjust to I try and make people believe that the object j of the motion was to give the power to f i dispense the plunder raised by the General - j Government. He felt proud of his posib j tion as Superintendent. Superintendents - j represented more people and a larger extent i ] of country than any other officers in the j! country, and were not pitchforked into office I | by chance votes in that Heose. Iney were I i elected by the people chiefly for their caj a- > i city to deal with public works and to exerci.-,e I | colonising functions They should not be I | taunted with seeking to recover the powers ; ! conferred by the Constitution Act, but iudi- • 1 rectly taken away by the legislation of 18/0, , ' The Ministry came into office pledged to work ! j harmoniously and cordially with tue provinces but they had broken that pledge. The pre- ; sent motion was intended partly to protest, » against the maladministration of the Govarn- : ! ment, When than policy was initiated he , said its authors should have the credit or di.-s- ---' grace of carrying it out. They had the dis- ; grace, for it was the greatest instance of i ma'a.lmiuistiation he eves knew. It the piesent system were continued the ooiony must ; be ruined beyond salvation. The motion only : asked for such a change as would give the 1 colony a chance of life. He would give in- ' stances of maladministration m his own proi vince, Last session the Government promised : to spend J515,000 a, year in making roads to ' i the north of Auckland. The return on the table showed an expenditure of £700, with oontemplated works up to £6000. The Provincia.l Government offered to use its survey staff for those works, but Ministers refused the offer, and sent their own suryeyors, who went about trying to stir up disaffection against the Provincial Government. Two . years also had been wasted and nothing done

i iw—p in—lll 1111 W i npi > liww—i 111 wii—iiwwii' « I IHW 1 ""'l' ' m 'infr regarding the Thames water supply, while ia the inteiim the Provincial Government had actually given a supply and found it pay well. The Auckland aud Drury Railway failure was duo chiefly tu the administration of the Board of Commissioners and not to the Province It had since been surveyed, re-surveyed, an I nothing' was done until the House was met. The contract for Fort Britomart levelling was given privately, and which cost, far more thanil it had been let by provincial tender. Amkhk'vx Railways.—The annual report of the Hoard of Railroad ('-ommissioners of Massachusetts, recent ly issued, furnishes much ; interesting information with respect to rail- : ways in that State. The commissioners issued : a circular last August urging the railway-

companies to revise their tariffs, on the ground that their expenses have been' steadily '.diminishing for a number ol years past. : From the replies received it appears that S many lines have lowered their fires, an 1, curiously enough, it seems that the lines which ' yielded the smallest dividends, or no dividends |at nil, have made the largest reduction-!, in ! the hope, no doubt, of attracting the favour of the public. On an nverage, it farther appears, the cost of running a train in Massachusetts ought not to exceed a dollar a nile ; but in practice at present an allowance is ! made for additions to constructions, for rollin.: stock, and for profits, bringing the actua average cost up to 1 dol. of) cents per mile. As is here found to be elm case, the main obstacle to considerable permanent reduction of fares is the persistence of companies in expending their profits in additions aud extensions. With regard to railway accidents, the Commissioners give statistics which will surprise the reader. Instead of being more common in .Massacliusef fcs than in this country,

it is shown tiisit tin-y sire fewer. Among passengers earned 011 railways there are killed or injured, we are told, in (Jre-it; liritain, 0110 in o H),r)()() ; in Massachusetts, one in 17o,()0t); in Belgium, one in i,() 00,000 ; in Prussia, one in .'},Oi)O,(.KK) ; and in France, one in I.',IK)O,OO'J. The causes of accidents in general, we are iiiformed ( are a delicicney of signals t> insure suitable intervals of space and time between trains ; want of lelegraphic system of advice to <1 central station; insuliir.irut break-power, and tail-lights of insulli *ies 1 strengih. More fatal, ho.vever, than all these causes together are the obstinacy stud recklessness of the victim.* themselves. Five times as many fatal accidents, we are told, occurred to persons " unlawfully or carelessly on the track"—•generally walking-on it, as if it were a public highway—as occurred to pa: - saucers in trains. When the com lanies endeavoured, by instituting prosecutions, to deter persons from walking- on the lines, they found that, instead of saving life, they were occasioning- an increased number of accidents; for the prosecutions excited hostility, and led to obstructions being secretly placed in the way of the trains. Tno railway managers consequently decided that it was not ;id\ isablo to endanger the lives of their passengers in the vain hope of protecting those of wilful trespassers. The obstinacy of the public in getting in and out of traisis in motion is the next most, fruitful source of accidents. Next to this come "overhead bridge" accidents to breaksmen, to prevent which light fixtures have been hung at short distances from the bridges, so as to warn, by a slight blow in advance those who are in danger of being carried against the bridge. Jiut the breaksmen object to having their lives thus saved, and destroy these fixtures.—' P. M. Gazette.',' A. curious piece of legal trickery perpetrated by a woman in order to get rid of her husband is described by the "Louisville Ledger. —■" A woman in Indianapolis was in poor health, and fearing that in case she should die her husband would obtain the control of certain property that she possessed, she visited her sister in Louisville, Kentucky, | in order to carry oLt a scheme which she had I projected to prevent it. While staying with lier sister she crossed the river to New Albany, where she rented a house for thre months, and on this transaction based a resi 1 dence there. She then instituted a suit for divorce, after which she returned to her husband in Indiapolis. About a year ago she received a telegraph despatch requesting her ; immediate presence in Louisville in conse- ; qnence of illness in her sister's family, and i showiug this to her husband, he readily con- : sented to a second visit to that city. At this time she again went over to New Albany, ; where she received her decree of divorce, : which she quietly put in her pocket and carried home. It is possible that the husband 1 would have never known what had taken place, at least during her lifetime, had he not excited her iie by insisting one day too much : on hi.s own way as the heal of the family ; upon which she very curtly informed him that he need not try to tyrannise over her, as she was not his wife, at the same time producing*the document to prove her assertion, ihehusband' was more than astonished ; but he insists upon it that such a divorce as that will never stand, in which opinion he is probably about right."