A BUSY COMMITTEE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2216, 31 July 1914, Page 7

A BUSY COMMITTEE.

Some difficulty is being experienced iy the Education Committee .of • the House of Representatives in coping with the amount of work that has descended upon it in comieotion/jv-ith the Education Bill and the Religious Instruction in Schools Referendum Bill. Although the committor has been .meeting upon evory sitting day this week, and will sit again to-da.v, it has been found necessary to postpone meantime the . taking of ovidence upon the petitions ngajnst and for the Referendum Bill. One member of the. committee who was spoken to yesterday ■ expressed the opinion'that some-arrangement would have to be made under which the parties interested in the ■'■Bill-.would • agree to curtail their evidence and also the crossexamination of witnesses. Failing eome Euch arrangement, he remarked, it was difficult to see how the committee could get to the.report stage within a reasonable time. 'One suggestion 'which has been put forward is that the committee should 6it in the evenings, -when the House .is sitting, in order to take evidence upon the petitions. This: would be an unusual course,: and some difficulty ■ might be experienced t in obtaining the necessary permission' from the House, but the position of the committee iB so difficult : that it; is, quite possible that a definite proposal on these lines may.be put forward. • It is thought that if th e committee concen-trated.it|-atrt6ntion uppn : the Education Bill, it might''be'in'a position to Report upon that measure in two 'or three woeks. but the members of the Education : Committee will. not bo , free indefinitely to devote their attention: to the Bill and petitions now beforo that body. A number of these members belong also to o-ilier committees,' which may, shortly: have important iterjis of business .before tiiera.