EXTENDING THE SESSION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2293, 29 October 1914, Page 4

EXTENDING THE SESSION

The House of Representatives seems bent at the' present time upon maintaining its reputation for making eccentric departures from the path which it was expected to pursue. At the beginning of -this week it was accepted in tho lobbies- that the session would end on Saturday next, and members seemed all agog to put through the remaining business cxpeditiously, and get away to their constituencies. Two days of dawdling progress has practically destroyed these prospects, and there were ample grounds for the cheerful comment which the Prime Minister made upon tho situation yesterday: that members had : evidently determined to carry on the session for another two or three weeks. It is now unlikely that the business still in hand can be put through before the middle of next week, so that tho election campaign, which promises to be hot and heavy while it lasts, is bound to be very short, Strengthened by a sound political conscience, tho Government and its supporters , aro able to view the position with equanimity. Ministers must in any case rely more upon their work than upon appeals to the electors from the public platform, ■for they have been too busy for a long time past to spend any time in electioneering. As to the Opposition, their policy is presumably dictated by a consideration that their prospects are so bad that they cannot be improved by an additional week or two of campaigning. Also it will allow further time for search for Sir Joseph Ward's missing policy. Considering tho freedom and opportunities the Opposition have enjoyed in contrast to their busy opponents on ■ the Treasury benches, and the manner in which they have attempted to profit by them, Sir Joseph Ward, and his followers have made wonderfully little stir in the country, and they must find tho outlook anything'but encouraging. They i bavo shown themselves to be a policyless party of petty complaints. Their Leader_ ha 3 failed to inspire them in Opposition as he failed when in office, and they spend their time mainly in querulous fanlt-finding'over trifles; missing the things that really count in their anxiety at all times to cast discredit on the Government. It is pathetic at times to note the eagerness with which they scir.o. on any silly rumour or wild assertion aimed at the Government, and strive to build out of it a story of Ministerial perfidy or incompetence or anything at all as long as it might help them at the elections. The time wasted in. seeking to humbug the public in , this way is appalling, but we have grown so nccuJstpraod to this sgrt of tniup; that it posses almost uofaeoded, Possibly

the Opposition in their present timewasting arc cherishing a hope that by spinning out the session they may indue* the Government to jettison, in tho final rush, some of the legislation which has still to pass its final stages. If so, they are evidently doomed to disappointment; A significant incident in this connection occurred last evening, when the Legislative Council Bill came up for third reading. Alluding to the amendments made'by the House, including that which confers upon women the right to become members of the Second Chamber, Mr. G. W. KusSELr, predicted that Legislative Council reform would still figure in the platform of the Reform Party when it ma do its apncal to tho electors. The Prijje Minister replied with a much move confident prediction that the Bill would pass into law this session, and that without any very great difficulty. The truth t-eems to be that the Opposition party, in delaying the concluding business "of the session, is not proceeding upon, any settled plan but has simply fallen into a condition of drifting ineptitude. "Drift" about sums up the whole "policy" of the Opposition.