POLITICAL NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2672, 30 November 1909, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

SOME PROGRESS AT LAST. g:

(Special to “Times.”) iWELLING lON, Nov. 29. , The House is making a little progress at last. The end of last week saw the disposal of the Hospitals and Gharit- * | able Institutions -Bill and the State Guaranteed Advances Bill disposed of. This afternoon the second reading or the Death Duties Bill went through on. the voices, and to-nigm,-the Slopping and Seamen’s Act Amendment Bill wag put through tlio second reading stage. The Premier appears anxious to rush; :rt/ things cm by sitting on Alondays and Saturdays. He lias given notice to sit \ on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on and after' the 4th December. AJ suggestion to sit on three days a .week: from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. did not find over-encouragement from the Premier,, though he expressed his willingness to start at 10 a.m. if there were no limit to the hour of closing the sitting. Ho took advantage of the occasion, as I .5 suggested some time ago he would do, to throw the blame of the delay of business and legislation by exhaustion- f upon the Opposition. A good many members object to morning sittings on the ground that the morning, when., they arc fresh, is the best time for studying the measures brought down, and that the best work of Parliament is really done outside the Chamber. That is a poiut that does not appear to appeal very strongly to the Alinistrv, whose idea seems to be to get through, a certain amount of work however it is got through. * . NOXIOUS WEEDS. Nearly every session farming members) have a good deal to say on i-ho subject of noxious weeds—a very burn-» ing question in the country districts. The Government has never been too keen on this subject, for it is a great' sinner itself in allowing weeds to scatter from Crown lands. To-day twoquestions were given notice of on this topic. Air. Okey (Taranaki) wants toknow if the Alinister of Agriculture will bring down legislation* prohibiting the sale of chaff or seed infested with noxious weed seed; and Air. Fiekfi (Otalci) wishes to know from the Alinister of Agriculture whether he will, before it is too late, give his serious attention to the question of effectually preventing the spread of noxious weeds in the Dominion, the increase of such weeds being responsible for a material reduction in value in tens of thousands of acres of valuable land, particularly} / hill land, in various parts of the Dominion, and, in particular, whether fao will devise some more effective means than exists at present for securing to farmers pure seeds, it being unfortunately true that valuable properties have been and arc annually being scri-v ously damaged bv being sown with seeds which are jiurchased as ' pure, often at high prices, but arc, nevertheless, foul with weeds of the mostnoxious character. -