WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 October 1919, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(Our Special Ccqrespqndent)

WOMEN’S RIGIJTS,

BILL REJECTED. £Y pqp'NCIL

WELLINGTON, Qct. 24,

Tho faint praise with which Sir Francis pell moved the second reading of the Women’s Parliamentary Rights Bill in the Legislative Council yesterday, if it did not exactly damn the measpxe ,enpoqyaged many of its hesitating opponents to vote against it. Of course the Leader of the Council followed quite the orthodox course in making a judicial analysis of the Bill, stating the pros and cons with an admirable assumption of impartiality, but it was obvious enough before he pad proceeded very far that ' pis heart was not in his task, and that his sympathies lay rather with the majority which contended in effect, that what was good for the representative goose might ho very bad for the nominated gander. The women found eloquent and logical champions in the Hon. Geo. Jones and the Hon. J. T. Paul, but the weight of nominated opinion was against them and the Bill was rejected by eighteen votes to eight. THE ELECTIVE COUNCIL.

A very important and significant statement concerning this subject was made by the Prime Minister in the course of his reply to a deputation from women’s organisations throughout the Dominion which waited upon him in support of the Women’s Parliamentary Rights Bill yesterday almost at tho very moment that the measure was being slaughtered by the Lords. His own opmion >vas, he said tliat the Bill making tlie ‘ Council elective would come into operation next year, but it must first come before the House, and he thought the Pill might lie amended by Parliament. It still wquld remain an elective Bill, hut it was just, possible—for the feeling was growing in this direction—that provision would be made for the nomination of a certain proportion of tho members. Mr Massey evidently is preparing for a modification of the measures. A wholly elective Council which would deprive the. Ilouse of fhe means it at present possesses of asserting ' its supremacy, inevitably would lead‘to an agitation for the abolition of the Second Chamber and that is a "development the Prime Ministers and his colleagues arc anxious to avoid. CLOSE OF SESSION, z In reply to the leader of the Opposition, Mr Massey slated yesterday that he hoped to close the session on Saturday week. “I shall be i v ery glad when the session comes to an end, ■’ lie added, “not because there has been any unpleasantness, but because the work has been much, more strenuous than usual. I don’t think wo can finish before Saturday week, but I expect to close down then.” As a matter of fact the session has been exceptionally free from the disagreeable incidents which ,help in making the lot of a Minister disagreeable. This is all the more :reditable to the House from the fact that it was called together in extremely trying circumstances and under conditions that might have made for much bickering and bitterness. Members on both sides, with very rare exception have done their best to facilitate business and probably never before has a session jrcen so free from obstructive talk. IMMIGRATION. The “Dominion” his morning takes the Minister of Public Works severely to task for not propounding a comprehensive "nmigration policy. ‘Over and over again,” it says, “Sir \Yilliam Fra ser has emphasised the fact that the slow progress of essential public works is due to a shortage of labour. The shortage is admitted and indisputable; and it is admitted also by all who have addressed themselves seriously to the question that the only remedy is to do found in immigration. The extraordinary thing is that the Government has been content to go so far without definitely laying down the lines of an orderly imigration policy to be brought into bperat'on as soon as conditions will permit ” The truth of the matter is that members of the Cabinet are sharply divided on this question of immigration, and as a whole are disposed to postpone the problem to a more convenient season.