The Politics of the Session.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 1, Issue 5, 20 January 1911, Page 3

The Politics of the Session.

(By T. E. TAYLOR, M.P.) The session of 1910 appears to have established several records. It extended over more days, over more sitting hours, over more pages of "Hansard " than any previous session in the history of the dominion. The Statute Book itself will be nearly as fat as any book of laws produced in New Zealand within any one year. Exactly what the effect of the latter may be upon public welfare it is not easy to estimate. THE NATIONAL ANNUITIES BILL. There have been a number of Bills passed into law that should be ranked as good at least in their intention. Taking them haphazard, the National Annuities Bill revives memories of Sir Harry Atkinson's attempt to establish compulsory State insurance—an attempt that was twenty-five years in advance of public opinion. The curious limitation under the National Annuities Bill, which prevents a man whose income is beyond £200 a year from becoming a contributor, can only be a temporary expedient, and within a very short time the open door will have to apply to the national annuities scheme. This will be necessary, because in a country like New Zealand, where conditions are always shifting so far as employment and income are concerned, the man who to-day is barred from entrance because he is earning over the stipulated income, may within two or three years of the disability being placed upon him, be earning much less than £200 a year. Such an artificial condition of membership will have to give way, sooner or later, and I think it will be very soon. The principle of the measure is entirely in the right direction, and although I have not acquired the habit of "saving" myself, it is one that I can admire, within reasonable bounds, "when practised by others. THE GAMING BILL. The Gaming Bill naturally attracted considerable public attention, and the net result of all the excitement is probably the reduction of the number of days' racing in New Zealand by one hundred per year, and the supposed abolition of the bookmaker. I it will be found in practice that the wealthy racehorse owner will still be able to get on what he wants with the bookmakers. I hope I may be wrong in this surmise, but my idea is that Parliament has deliberately made one or two meshes in the legal net large enough to let the corpulent and clever bookmaker through when the big betting man desires to have a little chat with him in a corner of the course or elsewhere. Anyhow, the measure is in the right direction, and we shall have to close up the meshes when we know exactly what part of the net they are inTHE LICENSING BILL. The Licensing Bill has not extended the democratic power, because the three-fifths majority still remains in our legislation; but it has nominally given the people more power because it has included the issue of national prohibition upon the ballot-paper. I believe this is the first time that the straight-out issue of national prohibition of the liquor traffic has been submitted to any people in the British Empire, and I hope the concern that is being shown by all civilised nations regarding the effects upon the nation of the drinking customs of each people, will cause the people of New Zealand to face this great problem more resolutely than they have ever done before. Even with the fearful handicap of a 00 per cent vote before national prohibition can be carried, it still would be, with good organisation, just possible to carry the reform at the polls in 1911, although the most sanguine nature would scarcely look upon it as being probable. The prohibition party will doubtless lose a number of lukewarm supporters as the result of the minor alterations in the licensing law effected this year; but I believe that many thousands of men and women who have hitherto abstained from voting in support of no-license, will vote for national prohibition, because it promises definite results, and would enable the country to judge, after a five years' trial, whether or not the revolutionary improvements that it is urged prohibition would bring, can be accomplished. SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY. There have been alterations made in the Shops and Offices Act which, whilst not of very great importance, are an advantage compared with existing conditions. I think it almost certain that next session a universal Saturday half-holiday measure will receive such wide support as to cause it to be endorsed at the general elections in November next. EDUCATIONAL REFORM. The Education Amendment Bill makes provision for the establishment

of continuation classes as part of our primary system ot education; and whilst the classes to be established on the application of the school committee for the district, I think the measure marks an important change in connection with the educational system of the dominion. The compulsory school age was also raised to fourteen years, as against an indefinite provision of the past by which the attainment of a certain standard was equivalent to freeing the child from responsibility from further attendance at school. LIFE ANNUITIES BILL. A little Bill called the Inalienable Life Annuities Bill will probably lead to provision being made for the future of many families in a manner that renders it impossible to be disturbed by speculation or misfortune. PURGING THE ROLLS. The Legislature Amendment Bill provides amongst other things for the compulsory purging of the electoral rolls of the dominion by striking off the rolls the names of all persons who fail to vote on the occasion of a general election. TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES. The Monopoly Prevention and the Commercial Trusts Bills are good, so far as their titles are concerned. I don't think either of them in operation will prove of any service to the general public. Time only will show whether I am right. THE MUNICIPAL FRANCHISE. The Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill makes a very radical alteration, and one that cannot be made known too widely. The parliamentary franchise is adopted for all municipal elections, and it will be the people's own fault if they fail to take advantage of this extension of governmental power. Everyone now, whether they have a £10 rental qualification or not, so long as they are twenty-one years of age, and reside within a borough, can register upon the municipal roll and vote for the election of Mayor and. Council. OLD AGE PENSIONS. An amendment to the Old Age Pensions Act is designed to remove the grounds of complaint that the Bill of last session was responsible for, and I think in practise it will be found to accomplish its object. PHOSPHOROUS MATCHES. A little Bill, called the Phosphorous Matches Bill, is a nice indication of the growth of public opinion during the past few years. The manufacture of poisonous matches is to be prohibited throughout the civilised world simultaneously, and the little measure passed this year in the New Zealand Parliament is to give effect to this international agreement, designed to prevent a dreadful disease that has in the past attacked the workers in the manufacture of phosphor matches. QUARRY WORKERS. The Stone Quarries Bill caused an inexplicable amount of hostility to its provisions in the House. The country members from some parts of New Zealand laid themselves out to obstruct its passage. There is not a great deal in the measure, but what there is goes to protect the worker in stone quarries from some of the dangers to which he is now subject; and, in a quiet way, it represents a few bricks in the structure of reform, and goes in the direction of elevating the man as a man to the position he ought to occupy, and of making capital, as capital, subservient to the higher interest. TRAMWAYS BILL. The Tramways Amendment Bill has been hotly resisted by the local authorities controlling tramways. A great deal of nonsense has been talked: by these tribunals about the invasion of the rights of local government bodies. The fact is, that the difficulties that have arisen in connection with the Auckland tramways system and its employees are largely responsible for the passage of this year's tramway legislation ; but, on the whole, as the Bill has gone on the Statute Book, it simply extends the powers of the Government at what I think are essential points, and gives the State a power of supervision, and it gives the men some right to share in the control affecting the conditions of their employment. I believe in operation the measure will prove altogether beneficial ; but if any of the calamities occur which the various Tramway Boards predict as the result of the Bill's passing, the foundations of society can be saved from destruction by some amending measure next session. NEED FOR ORGANISATION. Although there is no published programme of reform in the hands of the present Liberal Party, it must be confessed that a number of the measures this year embody progressive thought, and they go to show how much more rapid progress could be if the public opinion that favours definite reform were organised, and acting along a well-defined line, instead of being, as it is largely at the present time, unorganised, and hitting hither and thither.