POLITICAL NOTES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 328, 23 July 1889, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES.

THE LATEST FROM THE HOUSE. [rnox oca owx ooausroxogxr.] WBLMxffroN, last night. The meeting of the City and Suburban* Members this morning was well attended. All were preiant and accounted for, Mr Moss was in the Chair. It was decided to continue to debate the Bill thoroughly. The general feeling was that the more the thing-q was looked into, the less they liked it, ana they cannot understand why the previous method of computing the margin has been so departed from as to give the country what really amounts to an advantage of nearly 58 per cent, It was also decided to moot Mr Barron’s motion insisting on no interference with the Act of 1887, without an appeal to the country. It is not expected that this will be carried, but the feeling against the Government Is so strong that it is believed moat of their town supporters will, if they cannot do anything else, vote for want of confidence in the Government, The Bill providing for the holding of elections of Licensing Committees triennally instead of annually will ba piloted through the Council by the Hon. Mr Shrimokl, Its passage is assured in the Council. Mr Duncan declares that the sad spectacle of 9800 people having left our shores is largely due to their being hounded out of land tit for settlement by the way Govern* ment deals with their runs, Mr John M'Kenzie says there was only one independent man on the Commission which classified the Canterbury runs ; all the rest were Government servants, who over* rode the opinions of the one independent Commissioner.

Next general election will, according to Mr John M’Kenzle’s prediction, show that Mr Richardson's land administration is unsatisfactory to the colony. In moving the second reeding of the Native Meetings Bill in the Council the Attorney. General referred to the danger there was in natives going about in large parties armed. Sir George Whitmore supported the second reading, but said he would try in Committee to remove certain objectionable clauses. The Hon. Mr Wahawaha said that if the Government had paid any attention to what he had told them last session, there would have been no disturbance about Td K >oti an the East Coast during the recess. He whs in favor of the Bill as a whole, but there wag. a clause he objected to, which, in his opinion, treated offenders and innocent men alike, He considered that the Bill should be so clearly defined as to apply only to To Kooti and his party, and not to natives living in their own districts. Opposition to the measure was expressed by the Hon. Mr Taiaroa, on the ground that it interfered with his subjects, who never created a disturbance. The Hon. Mr Wilson strongly opposed the Bill, saying that the disturbance lately, created by Te Kooti was not of sufficient importance for the introduction of such a measure. Had the Government been firm in their action, he held that there would have been no row. The Hon. Dr Pollen and the Hon. Mr McLean thought the Bill would bear good results, and supported the second reading. The second reading was agreed to. The very lengthy discussion that took place over a question put by Mr Duncan, the member for Waitaki, played directly into the hands of the town members, who are so strongly opposing the Representation Bill. Their chief desire is to delay that measure for an indefinite period, and but for the debate referred to the bill would have been reached at an early stage of to-dqy's proceedings. The discussion arose through Mr Dunoan's question respecting the granting of a lease of the Otakaiko run in the Oamaru district to Messrs Campbell and Sons, but the debate that followed resolved itself more in an all-round attack on the land ad. ministration than of the particular question which intiated it. Mr Ballance amongst others, spoke with some '.warmth against Mr Richardson’s land policy, and said that the Minister's chief desire seemed to be to get rid of the land as quickly as possible without sny regard to tfie wants of small settlers. He also asserted that the last Grown lands report wag full of tyrora, and utterly misleading. Thia statement brought the Premier to his feet in defence of his colleague, the Minister of Lands, and he said he should require mqre proof than Mr Ballance's mere assertion before he admitted that the figures furnished J by the Lands Depirtment were 8 r Harry Atkinson also soored heavily he said that the present Government had certainly not lavished large sums of money on village settlements like Mr Balance haq done, and the retort evidently told with those members of the House who remembered how severely Mr Ballance was taken to task when a member of the Stout-Vogel .Government for having spent 460,000 unauthorised by Parliament on ills pet village settlement scheme. The Premier further stated that the returns proved that there had been more genuine land eettlement during the laet year than in any previous year of the colony's his* ’ tory,' ’ - J .