BRITISH POLITICS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9098, 19 March 1908, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

Press Association—Copyright. Received; March 18, 10.58 p.m. London, March 18.

Mr Burns, addressing the Association of Municipal Corporations, suggested that since the municipalities spent 140 million annually on works, buildings, or engineering, they might—by co-operating with the Imperial authorities, who spent a similar sum on other work —considerably mitigate the sufferings of the unemployed. Too much municipal work was done at ’ a time when private trade was busy. In the House of Lords, Lord Avebury’s Sunday Closing of Shops Bill was read a second time, after a promise that cetrain amendments would meet the case of the -Tews.

Lord Carrington’s “Agricultural Holdings Bill, providing for compensation for improvements on holdings, also the Small Holdings Allotments Bill, dealing with the powers of County Councils regarding the provisiou|for*Bmali holdings and loaus*to tenants, were read a second time.

The Central Council of the Church of England Temperance Society, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and attended by many bishops, endorsed the Licensing Bill, and undertook to support thp extension of the time limit if 14 years were insufficient to prevent an unreasonable strain on the trade. The Times says that while the Government is willing to materially extend the statutory period, the Opposition appear determined to resist the Bill to the utmost.