PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 203, 24 February 1912, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL By Telegraph—Press Asso«iatio». Wellington, Last Night. The Council met at 2.30, and immediately adjourned, owing to the no confidence debate proceeding. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30. The Minister of Labor, in answer to Mr. Glover, said that under the workers' dwellings scheme, 73 houses were in the course of construction, and a large number of further applications had been received, but it would be too expensive to alow applicants to select single sites. The limit of six applications must be adhered to, otherwise the cost of supervision akd collection would be too great. Altogether 126 applications were received under the present system, and he hoped by the end of the year that 250 houses would be erected and occupied. THE NO CONFIDENCE MOTION. REFORM PARTY CRITICISED. Mr. Isitt, resuming the debate on the Address-in-Reply and the amendment thereto, complimented the mover and seconder on their speeches. The reason why he could not remain silent was that a member of that House had been most cruelly and malignantly slandered. He did not wonder that the Opposition wag elated, and he: •did not grudge them a little elation after their long period of melancholy. He proceeded to criticise the policy of the Opposition, which he described as a miserable attenuated policy. The arguments of the Opposition were a reproduction of the same old bone. They asked to be placed in power to carry out a policy against which they had voted tooth and nail. He accepted, without reservation, the statement of the members of the Opposition that they were not guilty of charges of hurling slanders upon Sir Joseph Ward. Those slanders had been uttered, however, aad the people outeide the House placed their own interpretation upon them. He admitted that the Government had to a certain extent done work meet for repentance. He referred inter alia to the military scheme. He did not care what Government was in power. If the Government Department attempted to force the Territorial scheme in the way it did, they would wreck the whole scheme. He deprecated dealing with young lads who followed the dictates of their fathers, as if they were criminals, branding tkem at the outset of their lives as criminals. Pie proceedd to criticise the Reform Party, and asked where the reform cam* in. Their platform was meagre and they sought power on the strength of it.

The Wellington correspondent of the Eltham Argus wired yesterday:—The no confidence debate, still continues and will probably last until Wednesday next. The Opposition «laim to be anxious to come to a division, but many Government supporters, seeing that their party has been impeached and placed on its defence, feel that in justiee to themselves and their constituents it is their duty to make a speech. Mr. Payne last night deliberately announced his intention to support the Government, despite the unfavorable criticisms he had made on it at election time. The opinion is now gaining ground that Mr. Mass.ey will win on both divisions, and some Government supporters earnestly urge that the best policy for Ministerialists is to allow Mr. Massey to take office and formulate a policy in June, deeming it unlikely that he can promulgate a policy acceptable to the Radical section of the House, though for that matter it is somewhat doubtful whether ewn the Liberal Ministry could give satisfaction to the extreme wing. The opinion is fast gaining ground that after all Sir Joseph Ward is the only possible leader of the Liberal Party and that he must be eventually reinstated.