ABOLITION BILL DEFEATED.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 February 1926, Page 3

ABOLITION BILL DEFEATED.

- THE VOTING 47 TO 41. LABOUR MEM HERS .MISSING. [Australian A- N.Z. ( a 1 I,- Association.! (Received this day at 9.30 a.in.' SYDNEY. February 21.

The Legislative Council mot after the adjournment. Air Willis formally moved the motion for abolition as previously cabled. A division was taken immediately and the Government was defeated by 17 to li. there being a number of Labour defect ions. When the result was announced a Labour member shouted : “ They ought to be shot,” meaning the’Labour abseil tees.

.Mr Willis immediately moved that the Chamber adjourn and the Labour members moved angrily out of the Cha mhcr.

.Many heated arguments oeeiirred in the lobbies between those Labour members in favour of the abolition of the U|iii( r Mouse and those against it.

It is not iiiinnilialilf Dint must of the absentee Labourites will explain their absence or take shelter in the excuse that they did not exoeet the vote to lie taken to-nighl. as Air AYillis stated the vote on the measure would not be taken before AYednesdav.

Mr AYillis. however, was out willed, to-night as he anticipated the Nationalists would allow the formal stages to pass without a division and had told bis supporters they need not expect a final vote until \\'cdnesdav.

It is hardly possible another attempt n bring a similar bill before the Mouse >ill be made this session.

Although defeated in its attempt to abolish the I peer Mouse the Government will make an effort to nass some ol its legislation remaining on the business paper Indore the Mouse is prorogued. and. towards the end of the year, tin effort will be made to Hoot the Abolition Bill through on a flooded Mouse alter application for a number of new appointments to the Legislative founcil is made to the Governor.

Mr Lang will now face a crisis which miy lead to a dissolution.

’REAMER REFUSES TO COMMENT

A LABOUR Al FAIR Ell EXPLAINS

SYDNEY. Eeb. 21. •Mr Lang refused to make any sfale-m-ait. regarding Illy Legislative Council's position. Only ten members of the Council did not take part in the discussion last night. Ot these two are absent from Australia, two arn ill. and one suffered a family bereavemen(. Of the twenty-live members recently appointed, four did not vote. One other Labour mouther apimiuted by tlm Storey Government was not present. Air Bryant, a former Government whip, and Mr I’ereivnl crossed the floor from the Labour benches and voted against, abolition. Air Bryant says be was guided only by a simple sense of public duly. He says the treatment he received during the past mouth after forty years adherence to the Labour movement is only wind would be meted out to a galley slave. lie does not inf cud to tolerate it any longer and will resign from tile Australian Labour Party. Air Bryant was paired with Air Boyce last session during the latter’s visit to New Zealand and be says that undue influence was brought to hear on him to make him break bis word, which, he always kept in business and elsewhere, li was this that caused him to take up the attitude Im tlid on tile division. DISCLOSURES OF LABOUR ALP. SYDNEY. Eeb. 21. Pereival. who was the missing legislator cabled on 23rd January yesterday resigned from the Labour Party, lie issued a statement in which be says that for 20 years be has siipnorleil tlm Labour Party consistently anil

obeyed the party whip’s crack. hut under the bullying tactics of Mr bang the lead lii’camc lo > heavy t> heal, lie blames Mr Lang personally for the whole of the odium which has been cast upon the Labour movement during the past few months. He says ‘'his Mussolini tactics arc Australian and not Labour. Labour members of the v'ouiicii were never consulted about the legislation to he brought down. They were telephoned or telegraphed to, and told to he in the Mouse at a certain time and to vote as they were told.” The requests became so discourteous, states Mr IVrcival. thal not, only he himself hut other Labour members started to protest, at the unfair iron I - ment. A crisis arrived when cnuncilU.rs were insl.rui ted to dishonour their word and break ixiirs. I bus Mr Lang torn political honour to shreds. Those who did not jump to attention under the dictator’s whip wore attacked. For several days the whole police and defective force was pul on my tracks to shallow nn‘ as though I were a ciimimd, states M r Pereival.

PRESS COMMENT. WHAT MR LANG FEARS. SYDNEY. February 24. The ” Herald.” in a leader, says lliat Labour’s defeat in the Council in connection with the Abolition Rill places Mr Lang face to face with a serious crisis. It cannot he denied that public opinion has again been forcibly expressed, ft has been strongly against their effort to get rid ot the Upper House. After a slashing attack on Mr Lang’s legislative methods, the " Herald, adds that the Government has feared and still tears to trust the pubilc. Tt has placed the confidence trick on the public and having achieved office by a subterfuge, it seeks unlimited power, careless of the means by which this is to he done and o! the wishes ot the people. The '' Telegraph ” says the defeat of the hill suggests that many of the loudest voiced abolitionists were like the tramp ostentatiously looking for work and secretly praying not to find it. The paper adds that it is not a prolongation of the Council’s lile that makes Mr Lang’s defeat a matter of congratulation —it is the failure ot his Government to perpetuate a discreditable fraud upon the electors. Turned hack from the wrong course he is now given a chance of starting again on the right course. Instead ot again attempting to swamp the Council with party puppets, lie can, it he is game, remit the question of abolition to the people.

The Labour daily newspaper, in a leader, says the defeat of the Government. though disappointing, may he regarded as hut a temporary reprieve for the Upper House. The position is the same as before. The Government took steps to abolish the Upper House, hut the obstacle must sooner or later lie removed, otherwise the Government would cease to he a Government, inasmuch. as it would he unable to carry out its programme. The present position is intolerable to the Government and an affront to the people who placed it in power. Further measures are necessary and will he taken.