King Country Chronicle Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1910. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 322, 21 December 1910, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1910. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The general election at Home has resulted in giving a renewed lease of power to the Liberal Parly. They resigned from office with a majority of 124: they return again with an almost exactly similar strength and apparently, while smaller polls have been cast, due to a stale register, continue to have the confidence of the country. The result at any rate is a substantial working majority for them, which while no greater than at the dissolution, is no Jess, and wc may expect to see the Veto Bill pressed forward and the Lords accepting the logic of events. The Bill provides that the Lords shall have no voice in the control of finance: that the Speaker shall decide when a Bill is a Money Bill and does not require the assent of the Lords; that if a Bill other than a Money Bill, is rejected by the Lord* in three successive sessions (after minimum of two years) it can paßfl without the consent of the Lords, and that Parliaments shall be limited to five instead of seven years. Mr Asquith, in a speech delivered in Parliament on April 14th, said: "In no case will we recommend dissolution except under such conditions as will secure that in the new Parliament the judgment of the people, as expressed at the election, will be carried into effect." That explicit statement will serve to show the attitude of the late Ministry, and the predictions cf certain noble Lords may be taken for what they are worth. The Lords will have to bow to oljvious facts. The reform of their ancient House is at hand.

The Mayor of Gisborne, who recently floated a big loan for his municipality on the London market, and has done much useful work in connection with the frozen meat trade whilst at Home, makes an interesting statement on his return to New Zealand. He saw the Edison Btorage battery whilst in New York and predicts that no other system of tram carß can touch it in efficiency. It seems probable that the Gisfjornc Borough Council will adopt the system, and if it does, we shall have practical proof in these islands of what the wonderful battery is capable cf. It implies charging the cars with the electricity for running them before (hey leave the sheds, and overhead wires are abolished. The saving of cost is estimated at one third. There can be little doubt the new system is the coming one. We shall watch its developments with interest.