POLITICAL NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1582, 28 October 1912, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

THE SESSION, Tho general opinion in the Parliamenr. dry lobbies and one that has sonic weight of official sanction behind it is (hat the sofoion will terminate on Wednesday. November C. Thero uro doubters, lowover, including some prominent memlurs of the Opposition, who declare that it is absolutely impossible' for Parliament to get through its work in less thou a fortnight, and that even winding up n Sat-" urday, November 9, will entail jettisoning a good dent of tho work now in prospect. In support of the latter opinion it is pointed out that lengthy discussions m;iy bo looked for upon tho Public Woiks Statement and Estimates, the Railways Amendment Bill (containing tho aulhrr-. isatious for the year), Hie (supplementary Estimates, tho report of the Public Accounts Committee upon its iutiuiry into tho_ administration of the Stale Guaranteed Advances Department, tho reports <,f ; tho Taupo-Totara and Otira Tunnel Committees, and possibly upon tho report of tho Joint Committee set up. to investigate tho petition of Mr. Joshua Jous, of Mokau, Tarunaki. Apart from this, thero are the Bills Order Paper. The thrco big policy Bills of the session, Laud, Defence, and Public Service, ,-iia' all in their final stages, but numerous less important measures remain io be dealt with. Members who tako the view that tho session is bound to last for another fortnight are thus able, to make out a plausibb case in support uf their opinion. On the ether hand, thero is undoubtedly a strong desire on the part of members all round the House to iet away as soon as possible. This fcePiUj i% strengthened by an opinion, universally hold, that next session is certain to be both long and arduous. TO-NIGHT'S BUSINESS. The third 'reading debate on tho Laud Bill stands at the head of tho Order Paper for to-night's [iroceediiigs in flio House of Representatives. Tho speeches are likely to kike up a good deal of time for a number of Opposition members btuve signified their intention of recording, their protests against tho freehold provisions of tho Land Bill when, it comes up for third' reading. The second item on tho Order Paper is consideration of tho amendments made by tho Legislative Council in the Public Service Bill. This debate wis held over, at the end of Friday's sitting, on the understanding that discussion would In kept down to a minimum when the amendments were next brought for-' ward. The items which follow next in order nub small Bills. PENSIONS FOR VETERANS. Somo of tho members who have been urging the Government to provide a pension for Maori war Veterane irrespective of income derived fiom any other source are in hopes of wcuring this concession before the present session ends. * The Military Pensions Bill now before the House 'disqualifies those- who receive tho military pension from receiving: tho old ago pension, and the military pension itself is liable to reduotion where the recipient has other sources of income. Seveml nieinbors declared themselves dissatisfied with this proposal when it oaino before the House, and one of theso members informed a reporter last evening that ho had reason to believe that tho Military Pension Bill wouUrbo amended in Committee in the direction of providing a straight-out military pension, to which possessore of tho New Zealand war - medal would bo entitled, irrespective o.' their other sources of income.