HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1454, 8 October 1884, Page 2

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

The Gold T) n ty Abolition Bill was committed, when Mr Rolk'Ston anide a violent attack upon the Bill. Sir Julius Yogel said tlmt Government did not agree to the right by the Crown to a royalty on precious metals lieing abrogated. The Government would not oppose the bill provided the time for its coming into operation was fixed for the 80th September in lieu of the 31st March as proposed in the Bill. The motion for the committal of the bill was carried on the voices. In Committee Mr Seddon moved that the words " shall come into force on the 31st March, 1884" ba expunged, and the, words "after th« passing of this Act " be inserted in lieu thereof. — Amendment lost. The Minister of Lands then mover! a further amendment that this Ace shall only come into force on an Order in Council being issued. The amendment was carried on a division, aye.s. 38 ; noes, 9. Mr Seddon moved a further amindment that such Order in Council should be issued not latter than ti. c 30th day of Sept., 1885. He contended that a definite date should be fixed when the duty should be. abolished. An Order in Council meant the will ot the Government of the day. Local bodies would bring pressure to bear npon the Government and the Order in. Council would never | be issued. Sir Julius Yogel in his speech had said Government would agree to SOth Sept. If sincere they should adopt this amendment. Messrs Menteath, O'Conor, B-van, and Fergus strongly supported Mr Seddon's Amendme it. and urged tl-at those members who were really i- ; earnest in wishing to abolish the goio ; duty should support it. ! The Minister of Lands, Messc-Bii-!c-land, Cadman, Hatch, Eoll»--t<j'». Smith, and Guinness opposed tho amendment. /ogel moved the second r.^di>\'. o? , the Westport Harbor Bill. There v/, 1 no reason why this port and Grey mo'io should not rival Newcastle and oUv -• large coal exporting places. It \v. - estimated that they had equal to o-.e. i hundred and five million tons of coai irv I this place alone. Besides the— c ther.-. ' were other coal deposits in the vicinity. It was not therefore a local work ilia*. was aimed at hut a work ofColonia! importance ; beyond the relinquiahtnenu ■ of the revenue named in the bill, tin-* j colony incurred no risk in the undertaking. : Shrimski opposed tlie motion, »on- ! tending that the bill proposed a wu-t '■ unwarrantable concession to a c«na pany largely represented in i.he n.uu bers of this and the other branch of ■ the Legislature. He recited the vui.ii .-* j of the members who were thus i'uer ! ested and asked the Speaker .o nil-. : that these gentleman shonla not w ! allowed to sit and vote on the r.>:n.. 1 If this coal deposit was the valuulde thing it was represented to ba, t.ien I he contended the Crown should rese-v - I possession of the mine and not allow ! all these advantages to be secured by ' private persons. Atkinson recognised that it was a colonial and at the same time a mo '. important work, and that as s-ich y should recommend itself to ih"i--notice. As to the way the besu rae a u > for assisting in developing these mint* ! there might be a diversity of opi.iioii. He did not like the method proposed by the Bill He. was entirely opposed to a guarrantee as it left it indefinite when their liability ended. He should like to see the mine and the rail v. My given in security at a low rate of interest. A trust should be constructed under the direct control of the Government for that purpose. He would be happy to consider this if it was brought down as part of the Public Works Statement. He would support the motion, but in Committee would move in the direction he had indicated. Macandrew agreed- on the views expressed by the last speaker. He believed the coal deposits of the West Coast were sufficient to cover the whole of the colonial loans. The mine itself and its royalties were quite sufficient security without the railway, and he counselled them to try that security first. He would much rather Government had undertaken this work themselves as suggested by Atkinson. He quite believed from the evidence they had had that an expenditure of £60,000 would give them 16 feet of water, and that he concluded would be sufficient without going in for this large and magnificent proposal. He strongly urged the importance of the work" being dealt with this session, although at the same time he did not believe in the extensive proposals of the Bill. O'Conor said the company in question had lint a very small proportion of the estate that would be bone-fitted. A large proportion of it belonged to the Crown. He complained that the imputation cast on the members by Shrimski was calculated to damp the enterprise, and prevent persons from embarking therein. Debate interrupted by the 5.30 adjournment. The House resumed at 7.30. Turnbnll continued the debate on the W.Y.hritfe Harbor Bill, and regretted that tl.e whole question had

not been referred to a select Committee to report on ; by this means members would have been made conversant with the whole question. He would support the second reading, but' when in Committee he hoped some means would be devised by which Government could carry out the works now on hand. Rolleston said the House should be very particular as to the course they took hi connection with the matter. He favored the suggestion of sending the Bill to a Committee. There were two matters to be carefully considered before this measure was adopted ; they wore, first, to make sure that the resources were in sufficient quantity to warrant the expenditure in developing them; and, secondly, there was the question whether the carrying out of this work should be l«fb to a local trust or carried out by Government. The borrowing proposed in this Bill was, in his opinion, a system that should only be brought down in a general financial .scheme. Montgomery said there could be uo doubt that the coal deposits at Buller were valuable and of good quality. It appeared to him that if the harbor could be deepened to admit of large) vessels to carry away coals not only for local consumption but foreign, it would be of great benefit to the colony. The bill provided for a board to carry out works, with permission to borrow £500,000, and they also had large and valuable endowments. The question in his mind was whether a board should be appointed, and, if so, should they have the expenditure, of the money in connection with the work. It seemed to him that the colony should undertake the work, and that the Minister of Public Works should j bring down a statement as to the ! estimate for completing this work.:Hh objected to Government guaranteeing the debentures, and also to the board having power to borrow the half-million. There was also a provision from Government to take over the work, and there was but little doubt that if it was unsuccessful Government would have to take-' charge. He could not, therefore; support the second reading, but con~ curred in the opinion that the works | indicated were very necessary. J Shepherd spoke in favor of the J Bill. . Bryce thought the work was a desirable one, and the only question in his mind was by whom it was to be done. He agreed witli tho member ; for Akaroa that Government should undertake the work. He thought thepeople had a full light to ask Govern- . ment to take the responsibility in connection with the question. : Sir George Grey argued Now Zealand was to l>e the coaling station of the Pacific, and thought it ikvs of groat interest to the colony thafr facilities should be extended for exporting, coal from the West Coastport.s. We liugton, io his opinion,, vo'ild benefit as much by opening Westport harbor as Westport itself The coal mines of England had mad** 1-er the fountain of manufacturing and export in the world. It would be a wise provision, if. when there was a complete system of local self government to hand over these works to local boards and allow them to exercise the I powers which Parliament had proi posed to do. j Colonial Trimble opposed 1 the bill, and the borrowing powers given to : Tocal bodies. 1 The. Premier was supposed to hear ; tho remarks from the last speaker, yet Ihe (Trimble) had during the whole. ! time he was in the Houso supported ! the vei-y policy against which be now ! spoke. He disagreed with what had" ■ been said about Government carrWng •on the work. It had been the curse, of the colony for tho Government to act as a central Board of Works. If Government undertook the management of one harbor they would have to take over all of them. He did not think the Government had any objection to the bill being referred to a committee, that # was. if there was sufficient time for' a committee to consider the. question. He, however, believed that a large number of those who wanted a committee were simply taking that action with a view to shelving the question for this session. Hatch and Grigg also supported, but the former would prefer to see ft referred to Committee. Garrick said the Bill was a practical application by Government of the doctrine of local self-government. It was, he believed, the first occasion on which Government had introduced a bill which so emphatically tended in that way. Barron hoped the Bill would be referred to a committee. Holmes would not at present pledge himself to vote either for or against the Bill. After Sir Julius Yogel had replied, the second reading was carried ; and Yogel moved that the Bill be referred to a Committee to report on Tuesday, which was also carried.