BRITISH POLITICS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9151, 21 May 1908, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

Press Association —Copyright.

London, May 20.

Mr J. H. Whitley, Government Whip, is retiring from the House of Commons on the ground of illhe'alth. i-He goes to the House of Lords.

Lord Avebury’s Importation of Plumage|Bill, which is intended to check the wholesale destruction of birds, was read a second time and referred to a /.Select Committee. In the House of Commons, Mr As quith, replying to questions, said he did not see sufficient reason to depart fromJiis predecessor’s practice on Empire Day in regard to the proposal to fly the Union Jack on the various Government buildings. THE EDUCATION BILL. During the adjourned debate on the Education Bill emphasised that if the Government was anxious for peace not war, it was the Government’s duty to indicate the precise basis for. a satisfactory solution. They urged the formulation of a Bill recognising parents’ rights. Catholics feared some settlement might be made which would leave them , out in the cold.

Mr Rnnciman declared that the Government’s aim was to effect a settlement on a Protestant basis, with provisions to meet to some extent Catholic requirements. He extolled the principle embodied in the Oow-per-Temple clause, aud repudiated the more extreme doctrine of parental rights., He argued that the basis of clause 47 was generous.