BRITISH POLITICS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 450, 20 February 1909, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

THE KING’S SPEECH. LABOUR PARTY THEATENING. London, February 18. There were thirty amendments to the Address-in-Reply to the King’s Speech in the House of Commons. Mr Barnes, of the Labour Party, continued the debate. Dealing with the inadequate proposals for unemployment, he declared that the twin causes, private ownership and land capitalisation, were responsible, and he demanded land taxation, the nationalisation of canals and railways, with shorter hours of labour, and ended by passionately exclaiming that he would rather be outside the House if time was being wasted. The Labour Party, be said, would be belter employed rousing the country to a true sense of the position.

The Hon John Burns, in an emphatic speech, which aroused much dissent, attributed the unemployment to violent fluctuations of industry amongst engineers, shipbuilders, boiler-makers, and builders and the difficulty with organised unskilled labourers. If a tithe of the money spent in drink, be said, could be devoted to insuring against unemployment, much misery would be saved. The Government were considering au afforestation report to deal with the poor. The new Irish Land Bill, by preventing the annual influx of forty to fifty thousand Irish labourers into the North of England, would do much good. An amendment to the Old-age Pensions Act was projected which would involve an expenditure of a further three or four millions.

Mr Wm. Crooks (Labour) described the King’s Speech as all window-dressing. The Labour exchanges were a bogey, and were only useful to a few clerks. Unless the Government dealt with the unemployment question this session, the Labour Party would raise a campaign that the Government would be sorry for. It was a great betrayal of the starving people. The Hon. Winston Churchill, President of the Board of Trade, said-the exchanges were the gateway of industrial security against unemployment and insurance would follow later. The aforestatiou and sweated industries Boards were great helps. Tariff Reform as a solution was a mockery, irrelevance, and impertinence. The amendment was defeated by 205 against 101. Cordial references to the King’s Speech are made in the Berlin Press,

The Vossiche Zeitung declares that King Kdward’s visit is having better political effects than was anticipated in Germany. The ice has been broken, and a period of angry suspicion and discussions was now past. Mr Austen Chamberlain, who was a member of the Balfour Cabinet, will move the Opposition Party’s official amendment to the Address-in-Reply, expressing regret that the Government failed to recognise the gravity of the state of trade and unemployment, and emphasising the need for a new fiscal reform to promote the growth and stability of the home trade, to negotiate for the migration of foreign tariffs, and to develop oversea trade by preference within the Empire.

The delayed train from Palmerston to Foxton, which is to run every Saturday for the convenience of Palmerston “ working me ” who desire to bring their wives and families to the Heads for the week-end, arrived this afternoon at 2.30 o’clock. Our representative looked in vain for passengers en route to the Beach. Such alteration to the time-table is an inconvenience to local business people and a stupid blunder.