POLITICAL NEWS AND NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 118, 26 August 1910, Page 5

POLITICAL NEWS AND NOTES

By Telegraph—Own Correspondent. Wellington, Last Night. STILL THE CRIMES BHiL. Parliament did not emerge to-day front' the Valley of the Shadow of DoNothing. The Council made some progress with its debate on the Crimes Bill, in which the influence of alcohol was treated with the seriousness that the much discussed subject deserves. The principal object of some of the members to-day, however, appeared to be to justify their existence as a Chamiber whose business it is to retard pace. FLOODS OF ORATORY. Mr. Ormond had a Bill for dealing with Hoods in the neighbourhood of Hawkt's Bay, where floods are apt to be phenomenal. This Bill had "missed the 'ibus" prescribed by the Standing Orders, which must start before a certain day. That date having elapsed, Mr. Ormond asked the Council to let the Bill start nevertheless, by reason of its important character. To deal with floods, the Council, however, hesitated. The Bill was in danger for an hour or so. A USELESS DAY. . The House took much pains to demonstrate once more the total uselessneas of private members' day. INO one laughed* at the jokes except in the dreary manner usual on these occasions of boredom. Mr. Si (ley's Bill was the corpus vile of the usual demonstration. It is aimed at amending the Public Health Act in a manner which might please a man like the Czar of Russia, ibut would be sure to raise pain among the citizens of a free country. Mr. Sidey was made aware, on the last occasion, of the real character of his monstrous infant, but the House forgave him, and told him not to do it again, which means that the House read the Bill a second i time, with an intimation that it did so | out of compliment to the happy parent, I whom it did not wish to give way to I melancholy at the failure of its political life. Mr. Sidey, instead of taking the hint, as some others on the Order Paper who had been through the Act did, by withdrawing sine die, spent the week in remodelling, with th.e result that he faced the House in committee with ai big string of amendments at once over the new Bill, and Mr. Sidey was gravely told that he must not have one bill read a second time with a view to putting quite another bill into committee.

COLONEL DAVIDS'S APPOINTMENT.

A PERMANENT POSITION.

11l the House of Representatives some days ago, Mr. Rhodes, M.P. for EHesmere, asked the {Minister for De- - fence whether he would give further > information to the House respecting the position offered to Colonel Davies by the Home authorities aa follow: (1)' Is the appointment a temporary one, or is there any possibility of the Dominion permanently losing the valuable services of Colonel Davies? (2) Will the Dominion continue to pay Colonel Davies his salary, and so retain a hold on his services for the Dominion?

Replying to the question on Wednesday, the Prime Minister stated that the War Office offered the command of a brigade of infantry at Aldershot to Colonel Davies, and this, with the concurrence of the Government, waa accepted by the colonel. The Government, in agreeing to this request, were prompted entirely by the desire of not standing in the way of the advancement of Colonel Davies in hia profession, aa the offering of the position 'Was complimentary -alike to himself and to the Dominion. The position is a permanent one. INo portion of, Colonel Davies's salary will be borne by !N T ew Zealand, and! there is no intention that this should be done.