THE FINAL SCRAMBLE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1259, 16 October 1911, Page 4

THE FINAL SCRAMBLE.

The public are likely to come out ; badly from flic cnd-of-the-scssion scramble this year. It, is bad enough to have the discussion on the business of the Imperial Conference shelved, as it certainly will, and as i Sin Joseph AVakd is no doubt very i anxious that it shall, he. There will : possibly be a perfunctory kind of discussion, hut the opportunity for : serious and earnest exchange of views : on Imperial questions has passed so ; far as the present session is con- ■ cerned. The jettisoning of the long-

promised Local Government Bill is another disappointment to many, but will surprise no one who knows the Government. It is not a vote-catch-ing Bill, simply because Ministers will not bring in the sort of Bill that is wanted —that is a Bill that will take away a part at least of their power to squander further money in attempting to bribe electorates. A Local Government Bill has been promised by tho Government for something like 20 years, and a satisfactory measure of the kind probably will never come from the present leaders of "Liberalism." But while these and other matters have l>cen thrown overboard, for the time being at least, there are many things that are to be rushed through, and wc fear the consequences. The cpiestion of the new Parliament Buildings, for instance, is one of very considerable importance lo everyone. It is not merely a matter of the money involved, although it is generally felt by those capable of judging that the cost has been under-estimated if the plans arc to be carried out as indicated ; but there is the still more important issue of the particular plans that tho Dominion's Parliament House is to be built from. What hope is there, with members so anxious to get away to their electorates, of this matter receiving the_ attention it deserves? The Public Works Estimates probably will also escape adequate scrutiny, as also the Supplementary Estimates, on which the increases of salaries arc to appear. As to the remaining legislation, what chanoo has it of carcful analysis? Much of it obviously is being rushed together now —a number of Trills on important subjects have yet to be circulated; and there is, according to the estimate of tho Prime Minister, only a week more to do it all in. The tiublie will have to bear the brunt of it in slipshod legislation and waste in a variety of directions. The cnd-of-thc-scssion scramble appears to be growing from bad to worse.