WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 149, 27 June 1916, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

A MINOR FINANCIAL DEBATEi EARLY CLOSING. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, June 23. Although Mr. Pearce’s amendment to the motion to go into Committee of Supply on Wednesday stayed the progress of the Estimates till late yesterday afternoon, the Government still i s able to congratulate itself upon having got the Budget out of the way without the customary debate. The amendment opened up a wide field for ■discussion, and threatened at one' time to occupy the House for the rest of the week, hut after the first halfdozen speakers had said the obvious things, interest in the proceedings rapidly waned, and no one was sorry when the weary iteration finally ceased. The return to the Estimates gave members an opportunity to air a number of local grievances and to effer the Ministers much sage advice. The Postmaster-General was told of scores of districts that wanted slot telephones, better telegraphic communication, cheaper delivery of messages, and other boons of various kinds; but Mr. Ell, with his impassioned appeals, was no’ more successful than Mr. Ngata, with his entertaining raillery, in extracting any extravagant premises from the Minister. •The Post and Telegraph vote was put through shortly after 10 o’clock, and then the Railway vote kept a drowsy Committee engaged until the small hours of the morning.

AMALGAMATING DEPARTMENTS

/While answering a batch of ques tions put to him during the considera

ticn of the Railway Estimates last night, the Hon. >W. H. Herries expressed again his hope that the Tourist Department would very soon be amalgamated with the Railway Department. Something certainly should be done to terminate the ridiculous competition between (theyse two departments, which makes for neither economy or efficiency, and perhaps amalgamation would be the best way out of the difficulty. But, if this course is adopted, the Minister who .controls the amalgamated departments must see that the many little services rendered to the public by the tourist bureaux are continued. It would be well for the Cabinet to look very closely into this aspect of the question before it finally adopts Mr. Herries’ suggestion. It is just possible the Minister for Railways does not know of all the Tourist Department is doing. Mr. Craigie. the member for Tirnaru. is now urging that it should take over the functions of the Immigration Department, which are new well within its capacity, and it is not easy to see how the Railway Department, with its less adaptable organisation, coldd undertake this work. SIX O’CLOCK CLOSING. The Parliamentary Committee that is considering the petitions in favor cf closing the hotels at 6 p.ra. during i the continuance of the war has had

its next sitting postponed till Tuesi day next, in consequence of the ab- | sence of one or two of its prominent j member s from (Wellington, and there ! are suspicious people who see in this a ruse to prevent its report being presented to the House in time to be ! considered this session. Careful ini quiries had discovered nothing to ' justify this rather unworthy sugges(tion. nor to encourage the belief that I the postponement will materially de--1 lay the presentation of the report. It 1 is understood in the lobbies that the S Committee is evenly divided on the ' question, and that the casting vote of i the chairman will decide whether the . report shall be favorable or the reverse to the prayer of the petitioners. In the meantime the partisans on both sides are working assiduously j and may be found about the'precincts | of the House at any hour of the day , or night. Of course, the evidence sub- | mitted tc the Committee has been of 1 a very mixed and contradictory character, but probably all the members of the House have made up their , minds on the question, and would require no assistance in coining to a decision if they were required to express one. I | THE RELIGIOUS OBJECTOR. ! The Military Service Bill, which is •set down for committal in the Regulative Council on Tuesday next, will I come back to the'House with a clause, j presumably approved by the Cabinet, i exempting religious objectors from ■ military service provided they express , their readiness to undertake equivai lent non-combatant service. No ex- ■ eruption will be granted to the mere conscientious objector, and apparently ! the Government is prepared to face the delicate task of distinguishing between a man’s religion and bis coni science. This, it will be remembered, j was the position taken up by the Min- | ister' of Defence when he was urged ! two or three years ago to deal with | this knotty problem. He drew what he conceived to be a distinct line j between the religious) : ob;jecfcor and j the conscientious objector, and though j many of his critics refused to see | the distinction, he absolutely refused i to budge from his conviction. What the House will do with the proposal can be only conjectured, but with a 5 majority of the Cabinet favoring the j limited concession, which has been ! wen by the forces martialled around

Mr. Isitt, the probability is that it will be accepted and retained in the Bill. Some members may have a little difficulty in squaring their views of a week or two ago with the Ministerial mind of to-day, but never before has the time been so absolute as it is at the present time. MANNERS OF PARLIAMENT. The member for Grey Lynn has a playful way of throwing interjections and retorts across the floor of the House which easily might get him into graver trouble than any his unruly tongue has yet brought upon him. His little misunderstanding with the Native member of the Eeecutive the other might have developed into an extremely discreditable scene had •not his friends intervened and saved him fro m the consequences of his indiscretion. The incident ought to serve as a reminder to every member of the House that he is personally responsible, so far as his voice and example go, for the maim tenance of order and the observance of the prescribed courtesies. The present Parliament is not more lax in this respect than some of its predecessors have been, but occasionally it is disposed to presume upon the tforbearance of an extremely indulgent Speaker, and to take liberties iwhich never would have been attempted under the rule of Sir Maurice O’Rourke, say. or even under the rule of Sir Arthur Guinness. Sir Frederic Lang is one of the most amiable gentlemen in the world, and one of the most conscientious in the discharge cf his extremely onerous duties; but he ig rather too gentle in the handling of persistent offenders and too anxious to preserve peace, even at the expense of the dignity of the House.