WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 3 September 1926, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

UNSEEMLY HASTE. PARLIAMENT BEING HUSTLED. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, September 1. Even the “Dominion" which, oi course, wishes the Prime Minister nothing but well, deprecates mildly this morning the efforts that arc being made by Mr Coates to rush important policy measures throng l ! the House at break-nock speed so that he may get away to the Imperial Conference without leaving any responsibilities with hi.- colleagues. " Some days ago,” it reminds its readers, “we .suggested that some controversial measures should he set aside until next session as being certain to occupy much tune with only remote prospects of any material progress being made with Hein. The Licensing Bill is a ease in point. It contains some useful provisions. but it is obvious that il pressed on with, . the form of tiie House will be strained to the utmost possible limit to prevent certain 'clauses becoming law. And equally the. utmost possible endeavour will he made to introduce new clauses to eliminate the third issue in the licensing poll.” This really is only -a mild statement of the situation. It is not the Licensing Bill alone that blocks the way. There are half a dozen, other highly controversial measures on the Order Paper, or “in the air.”,.which, if members insisted upon Heir rights, might he held up almost indefinitely. LABOUR’S PROTEST.

Speaking in the House on Monday night Mr H. E: Holland, the leader of the, Opposition, made a strong protest against the demands that were being made upon the House. “ There has been scarcely one- measure that has been before the House this session,” be. said, “ that we have had an opportunity of dealing with. There has been little time for investigation and consideration- of any of the measures—the important ones—that have been dealt with. In the last few weeks, in fact, tiie whole, of the session, we have been sitting almost unheard-ol hours that no sane business man would think of conducting his business upon. Wo come to work at round about 9 o’clock in the morning;, we are engaged on committees or on the ordinary work of the electorates; we come into the House at half-past two; and we are hero, until 11, Iff. ff and 3 o’clock in the morning.” The Labour members, it must be confessed, are a little more thorough going than are the rank and file of the other parties, and consequently under the present regime t !, eir day is very full ; but it is a fact that the whole parliamentary machine is being run at a speed which cannot hf conducive towards the best results. ‘• 0 N E-! I A N-G OVE R N.\ IE NT. ’ ’

The position is aggravated by the general admission that Here is no urgent peed lor this utiseeinly haste. The Licensing Bill is the I*rime .Minister’s own particular “ baby ” and it is only natural that he should wish to see it through the House himself. But even if every member of the Government's huge majority, regardless of his own pledges concentrated upon the passage of this measure fully a mouth would lie required to place it on the Statute Boult. Mr Coates obviously cannot spare that time to the task and e might as well accept the inevitable now as have it thrust upon him a week hence. ’With the Licensing Bill out of the way. surely the .Prime Minister's colleagues could he entrusted with the rest of the business of the session. Mr Coates is not in. charge of tho Treasury, as were his predecessors, Mr Seddon, Sir Joseph Ward and Mr .Massey, and ho is not, as those party leaders were, compelled to keep his eye constantly upon the finances of the country. In the circumstances he is paying a- rather poor compliment to the Hon. W. D. Stewart, the Hon. A. I). .McLeod and the rest of his colleagues in implying that they are not capable of keeping the House in band for a week or two after his departure. HOT-POINT TALK. Some idea of the kind of opposition t’ o Prime Minister’s Licensing Bill is likely to encounter in the country mav he gathered fro in the Bev. T. E. Harry’s “Hot-Point Talk” in the. Baptist Church here on Sunday night. The Bill, he said, was-conceived almost wholly in the interests of the liquor trade. So subtle and so deadly, so specious and so cunning was it that it might he said to he horn of the pit. There was a semblance of a concession to the democratic sentiment in n proposal to have a referendum on an utterly unnecessary issue, and one or two trifling amendments to the present law; but oil the whole it was a sinister attempt to defeat the expressed will of tiie people regarding a ,two-issue ballot-paper. . It was the spider and the fly over again. Evidently the Prime Minister had been duped or doped by the liquor party, for he posed as a benefactor presenting an innocuous measure to the House. He knew that the majority in the House were elected pledged to give the people a two-issue ballot paper, and also pledged to grant no extension of time between the polls. His proposals were an attempt to make, members evade their pledged duty, and such action in the interests of a selfish and demoralising trade was utterly unworthy of his high office. Language of this kind is more picturesque than just, but it will obtain credence enough to affect the atmosphere of the House.