AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 28, 25 May 1914, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

STONEWALL ON LABOR BILL. IUNiTBD PBBM ifBodIATION.I Melbourne, May 22. In the House the stonewall against the Bill abolishing preference to unionists in the public service, which lasted throughout last night, continues. During an adjournment for the official luncheon to the Governor-General the mace mysteriously disappeared from the table in the House. It dropped from a place where a practical joker had hidden it under the Ministerial bench. The Non-preference Bill was read a

second time on the casting vote of the Speaker. The sitting continues.

N.S.W. FORMSDABLE PROGRAMME. (Received 9.5 a.m.) Sydney, May 23. The Premier, Mr Holman, addressing the Labor Council, outlined the Government programme, numbering seventy Bills, including State market gardens, fisheries,' ironworks, timbermills, fire insurance, universal eight hour day, abolition of the one-man-control of the railways, fair rents bill, crusade against consumption, amended industrial and arbitration, and legislation towards reducing the cost of living. Mr Holman frankly declared himself a Socialist, and declared that , he would do something more practical than merely wear a red tie. Regarding the meat trust, he declared that if it came he would settle it in twenty-four hours. The proposed State fire insurance and fisheries would be on the lines' of similar institutions in New Zealand. The crusade against consumption would include notification without publicity.