IMPORTANT BILL DROPPED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1747, 1 November 1917, Page 3

IMPORTANT BILL DROPPED.

SEQUEL TO DEADLOCK IN

PARLIAMENT,

NO EXEMPTION OF TEACHERS,

As the outcome of the futile conferences betweeu managers from the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives on the Expeditionary Forces Amendment Bill, the measure has been dropped by the Government.

When the House resumed late on Tuesday afternoon to receive the report of the third conference, it was announced that the managers had been unable to arrive at an agreement. The Rt. Hon. W. P. Massey; I do not propose to ask for another conferenee. I am going to move that the House adjourn until 7.30, to give Cabinet an opportunity of considering the position. When the House resumed at 7.30 p.m., the Right Hon. W. F, Massey announced that the Government did not intend to proceed further with the Bill this session. Mr Brown: The whole of the Bill? Mr Massey: The whole of the Bill. THE CAUSE OF THE DEADLOCK. It was on clause 3 of the Bill that the dealloek occurred. This clause read as follows; —

(1) Notwithstanding anything lo the contrary in the Military Service Act, 1916, the Expeditionary Force Reserve established under that Act shall not, on and after the passing of this Act,'include any person— l (a) Who is in holy orders or is a regular minister of any of the religious bodies or denominations; or (b) Who is a teacher in a public school within the meaning of the Education Act, 1914, or a teacher, lecturer, or professor in any secondary school technical school, tech-, nical high school, college, or university established under that or any other Act, or a teacher in any private school which is not conducted for pecuniary gain. (2) Every person who at the passing of this Act is a member of the Expeditionary Force by reason of his being called up for service under the,Military Service Act, 1916, and is then in New Zealand, shall be entitled as of right to his discharge from that Force if he would not have been included in the Reserve if this Act had been in force when he was so

called up. The clause was finally included in the Bill by the House of Representatives by 36 votes to 33. Subclause (b) had previously been inserted on the motion of Sir Joseph Ward by 36 votes to 32. The Legislative Council struck out the clause by 11 votes to 4.