POLITICAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 45, 23 June 1915, Page 8

POLITICAL.

PARLIAMENT OPENS to-morrow Parliament will he opened by Commission to-morrow, June 24, and the event of the day in the House, of Representatives is the election of Speaker The Speaker in the last Purliamn had not arrived in Wellington yesterday, hut it is generally assumed that he' will accept nomination tor 1 the Speakership again, and that he will he elected as a matter ol course. The Prime. Minister has iinformed a omiuion reporter that the Government would not introduce any measures properly described as party legislation. He took it that taxing Bills to provide the necessary revenue lor uai purposes would not be called party legislation m the ordinary sense of the word. As to the Government’s taxing proposals, nothing hag yet been divulged. It is probable that they will he embodied in several Bills, hut it may he tound possible and desirable to embody all of them in one Bill. One of the first Bills to be introduced will bo that designed to make our military pensions more liberal. It is generally allowed that those provided for in the Defence Act of 1909 are quite inadequate, and the Defence Minister has already given that as Ins opinion. He has also expressed a hope that New Zealand may be able to come to some arrangement with the Commonwealth so that there mas he one pensions scale for the two Pacific Dominions. There will he a Land Bill, hut it will not be contentious, as its predecessors have been. The Bill will simply make it jpossible for soldiers cm active service to take part in land ballots during their absence from New Zealand. The area reserved for soldiers will probably amount to not less than 100,000 ,■ acres. Minor amendments are to ho proposed in the War Regulations Act. The Mortgages Extension Act, which has been found to work inequitably, will he reviewed, and the House will he asked to amend it in the direction of giving the Court more powers under the Act. iho Enemy Contracts Bill, a new measure, to give the Government power to declare void any contract made with an enemy, is certain to pass without opposition. The Cook Islands Government Bill, held over from last year, will probably be reintroduced. It is a 1 measure which proposes to give the Islands a local government, and a code of laws, and to remove many of the anomalies existing in the control ot the Islands now.