THE H.B. TRIBUNE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6. 1927 THE SESSION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 6 December 1927, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6. 1927 THE SESSION

rpHE long-drawn parliamentary session of 1927 has come to an end with a record of “sitting” days that we are told surpasses that of any which has gone before. As the result of all this sitting 103 Bills have been hatched out into Acts that are to go upon the Statute Book, while 3.8 have either proved infertile or gone addled. So far as the number of chickens is concerned the session has proved most prolific in accomplished legislation. It will not, however, be until the full list of the Acts finally passed is published that we can form any just estimate as to value of actual achievement. Leaving this for later consideration, it may well be that that the session will be best remembered for measures that were brought forward only to meet with eventual rejection or postponement at the hands of members of one chamber or the other. Outstanding among these are the Licensing Amendment Bill and the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill. With regard to the former of these it may be said that the present Prime Minister has shown a courage in submitting it that may almost be characterised as the temerity of a comparative novice in the arts of political leadershipMore than one before him have funked fulfilment of promises with regard to this most controversial subject, but not so Mr. Coates, though it may be doubted as to whether his experience will lead him to take any such risk again. Without raising any controversy as to the main principle at issue, it may at once be said that the manner and disclosures of the debate in the Lower House were such as to lend little encouragement to a revival of the measure. The outstanding feature of it was that, apart from the question as to whether we are still to have houses licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquors or whether they are to be abolished, the interests of the public were lost sight of altogether. There is probably not one member of either House, be he prohibitionist or anti-prohibionist, who is not quite fully impressed with the necessity for some drastic reform in the conditions as they stand. But even such little measure of improvement in this respect as was embodied in the Bill as introduced by the Prime Minister had to go by the board because the whole-hoggers—the word is used without intention of offence — would listen to nothing short of abolition. One thing that made itself most assuredly apparent is that the prohibition issue is allowed at election-time to overshadow altogether too much other

issues that are of at least as great importance. Legislators who owe their seats to blind pledges on this subject, either on one side or the other, are apt to become one-eyed at the best and so to prejudice their general usefulness in the councils of the country. The outcome has been entirely negative, and for all the fuss and fervour we have made no progress in one direction or the other.

With regard to other inoperative Bill mentioned, however, the country can be congratulated on some good resulting from its having been tabled. From both sides, from employers and employees, persistent wordy attacks had been made not only on the law as it stands, but upon the broad principle upon which it is bp,sed. From many quarters both those who professed to represent the employers and those who made like profession on behalf of the employed have been crying out for the repeal of the principal Act and a reversion to the old system of wage bargaining. The debate in the House of Representatives, however, demonstrated very clearly that neither the minority expressly elected on the Labour ticket nor the majority elected to represent all classes were prepared to voice the suggestions thus put forward. There was a very general pronouncement that may be almost called unanimous in favour of maintaining the principles of conciliation and arbitration. The complaints that were current as to faulty operation of the existing legislation were mostly silenced whenever there loomed on the horizon any'danger of its being repealed. In this case the outcome promises to be all for the good, since it has been decided merely to shelve or postpone the operation of the main provisions of the Bill for the time being, and in the meantime to set up an intersessional committee to investigate and discuss the relations between employers and employees with a view to ascertaining means for their improvement. If this investigation is approached in the right spirit by all concerned and with due regard to the interests of the community at large, then some real public benefit should result.