WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 October 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

NEW PARLIAMNTARY BUILDINGS.

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Oct. 23, Mnisterial preparations for the approaching session of Parliament are well forward. The Governor’s Speech received its finishing touches yesterday and is now in the hands of His Excellency ready for delivery to-mor-row afternoon. It is of the usual colourless, non-commital character —only a little more so—indicating very briefly the more important measures to come before Parliament and reiterating the sentiments proper to such occasions. After the two Houses have disposed of purely formal business and passed the customary resolutions relating to ex-members of the Legislature who have passed away during the recess, they will adjourn till the following day, the Council probably to a later, date, and members will be free to study at their leisure thevarious •problems that will confront them when the serious of the session begins next week. .. •,. THE' LIQUOR REFERENDUM. ... A number of members from a distance already are in Wellington and most of them are bearing more., ; or less weighty petitions, urging one view or- the other of the liquor referendum. From what can bo gathered from these early arrivals the petition of the New Zealand Alliance praying »for the submission of the simple issue suggested by the Efficiency Board —continuance or national prohibition—will bear a huge number of signatures when it is pieced together. It is rumoured, too, that this is the issue most favoured by a majority of the members of the Cabinet, and Mr Massey, supported by Sir Joseph Ward, will give the House a lead in this direction. The Prime Minister has not absolutely committed himself on the point, but the Minister: of Finance is understood to have endorsed the Efficiency Board’s proposal*

SESSION AND ELECTION. If the brave talk of some of .the members now on the spot is to betrusted, Ministers and their administration will be much more freely criticised during the approaching session than they have been during any other session since the formation of the National Cabinet. The brightened war outlook, the results of the bye-elections and, perhaps the possibility of a general election in the near future have inspired members of independent tendencies with many heroic and if their courage does not fail them they may give Ministers quite a lively time. It is tolerably safe to say, howver, that a majority of the private* members are not anxious to precipitato a general election and that the prospect of going to the polls with the truce still in existence would readily bring them to heel. THE NEW BUILDINGS. The new Parliament Buildings which are to be occupied for the first time to-morrow still are in a state, of flag*rant unreadiness. To-day the chamber and lobbies and the rest of the sacred precincts are occupied by an army of workmen striving to evolve some sort of order out of most hopeless looking disorder. Carpets and matting, old furniture and new, papers and books, telephones' and typewriters, encumber every flooy and the odour of paint and varnish and wet plaster pervade the whole plaec. Probably £4OOO or £sooo' has been spent on keeping the Minister’s promise that should meet in the building this year and yet it is doubtful if the change will con- J tribute a great deal to members’ com- * fort. It may suggest minor changes in * construction, however, which would have been more difficult to effect with' the building completed. That comfort is left to the economist..