WINDING UP THE SESSION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2298, 4 November 1914, Page 4

WINDING UP THE SESSION

The end of the Parliamentary cession came into sight very suddenly yesterday. As often happens a day of stormy debate and'slow progress was followed by one marked by intense industry and application, and as a result there should be no difficulty in pitting the remaining business through to-day.' In a comparatively: short sitting yesterday over a dozen Bills- v were put through their final stages, some of them from the second reading onwards. This may appear rather a spate of legislation in the dying hours, and no doubt the-usual things will be sajd about the : end-of-session rush, but as a matter of fact the ' rush 'was not bo intense as tho figures ; may seem to indicate.' The list of measures dealt with included the customary Wash-ing-Up Bills, which are always put through at express speed, and a number of small machinery enactments. One of the latter was the Shops and Offices Amendment Bill, which provides for the licensing 01 tobacconists with a view to effectually regulating/ the hours of sale. This is a reform for which strong demands wcro made by retailers of tobacco in Wpllington. One' item which threatened to prolong 'the session, possibly to the end of the weak, the Cook Wands Bill. jt contains over six hundred clauses,

and the Opposition had threatened to obstruct it on account of its late, introduction. The Government, on the other hand, maintained that the Bill was very necessary owing to the unsatisfactory state of affairs at the Islandß, where there are practically no laws at the present time. The Bill is in "the main an application of the New Zealand law to the Cook Islands, and since it had been drafted to meet a situation which only recently became apparent and had been exhaustively reviewed by. the Statutes' Revision Committee and in part by the Nativo Affairs Committee, the attitude of the Opposition was not quite reasonable. At the Bame time the Bill was a big one to tackle at this late stage. The disagreement between the parties was settled in a somewhat unexpected way, for the Prime Minister announced just before the House adjourned that he was advised that the Printing Office could not cope with the work of printing the Bill in the event of its being amended. In the circumstances' the Government had no option but to drop it for this session. Meantime, ; it appears, the Cook Islands are to get along as best they can without a legal code."'