WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

SESSION OF PARLIAMENT.

OPENING ON THURSDAY.

(Special to “Guardian”.)

WELLINGTON, June 25

Apparently the Government is calculating upon the session of Parliament, which will open on Thursday next, ocupyincg no more than three months, and thus allowing the general election to take place early in November, without unduly curtailing the opportunities ol' members who are seeking re-election toi duly proclaim the services they have rendered the country. If one half the matters that have been mentioned by the newspapers are to be considered by the expiring Parliament, lio-wcver, the prorogation will not take place until the beginning of November, and in that case the election could not decently be held until early in December. But Ministers, who have done much of their electioneering during the recess, doubtless will be able to manage better than that, and with a lingo silent majority at their backs will ultimately get their own way. As far as can be seen at present, Licensing, Biblc-m-Schools, and Daylight Saving will make their appearance again, but it will be for the Government to say how much time they .shall occupy.

LICENSING. It is being suggested here that the Prime Minister’s statement concerning the Licensing question a little while ago did not commit the Government to the- introduction of a Bill, but opened the way for the New Zealand Alliance to promote a measure of its own. Whether or not this is the case remains to be seen, but it seems mijlikeily at the moment that Mr Coates would be ready to entrust a measure of this eon,sequence to a private member and leave it to take its chance in the House. That would he a demonstration of non-party legislation without any recent parallel. It appears more probable -that the Prime Minister is- facilitating the reconsideration of the whole matter with a view to reaching a compromise that wo.uld give the Alliance substantial concessions without abandoning the whole -position. Judging from such information as can be gathered there has been no great change in the strength of the contending parties during the recess, ami this being so a repetition of last year’s proceedings would be only a waste of time and temper.

DAYLIGHT SAVING. Daylight saving lias boon “so persistently attacked on behalf of the farmers —and perhaps on behalf of other interested parties'—that its friends are much less confident of its perpetuation during the approachingsession of Parliament than they were four or five months ago. Doctors and school teachers, city employers and city workers, seem to be almost unanimous in approval of the scheme for wider utilisation of sunshine, and constituting a very large section of the community, as they do, they still may carry Parliament with them. It is reported, however, that quite a number of the members of the House of Representativs who last session tentatively -approved of giving summer-time a trial are returning from their constituencies with a- mandate to keep the clock running on its century-hon-oured lilies. It is rumoured, indeed, that Air Sidey himself is not soi’ keen about ’me survival of his innovation as lie was a year ago, and that he will ho content for the present with another season’s further trial.

PR BACH EPS AND POLITICS. A member of the House of Representatives, who cannot be fairly regarded as indifferent to the- claims of religion, takes strong exception to Archbishop Averin's assumption. at the meeting of t-ho Council of Churches in Auckland that the politicians are responsible for the failure of the clergy to reach the heart and conscience of the mass of the people. In no country in the world, he insists, have the clergy wider opportunities to exercise an inspiring influence over men and women and children than they have in New Zealand. Education is at least as widely diffused in the Dominion as it is in any other part of the Empire; the extreme poverty of older lands is practically unknown, there is no dominating Church to fetter minorities, sectarian strife is conf/nod to the .smallest' possible limits, and the State lias kept its hands scrupulously off religious affairs. If with all these facilities the clergy are unable to make themselves heard, then, says this authority, they should be reviewing thenown methods of appeal rather than denouncing the politicians.