POLITICAL GOSSIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1915, Page 8

POLITICAL GOSSIP.

HOW PARLIAMENT IS CARRIED ON. THE EDUCATION DISTRICTS. A DISCORD. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 8, A member of the Press Gallery is apt to take a jaundiced view of the proceedings of Parliament at this stage of the session. The hours of work are inordinately l'ong, the ventilation of the Chamber is poor, and the methods of doing business are slip-shod. Even when allowance is made for the irritation caused by these conditions, it has to be admitted that members of Parliament do not look business-like, dignified, or even competent when they are engaged in hurrying through the' work that should 1 ave been spread over the whole of the session. At three o'clock this morning, the House of Representatives was discussing a Land Bill. That is to say, one member was addressing the Hansard reporter, the Prime Minister was meditating, two members were reading and eight other members, prone on their benches, were sleeping the sleep of the weary, as far as one could judge from appearances. Two highly contentious matters have been brought forward by the Government in tiie dying hours of the session. One is the Education Districts question, and the other is the old freehold-lease-hold controversy. The Boundaries Coramission, appointed under the Act of last year, recommended that the number of Education Districts in the Dominion should be reduced from thirteA to seven, the smallest number allowed by the Act! That recommendation reached tlie. Government at the beginning of the session, buit it remained in the Ministers' hands while the National Cabonet considered whether it dare risk the wrath Of members whose districts were to lose their Education Boards. The outcome is a Bill setting aside tlse recommendations of the Commission, and fixing the number of Districts at nine, the maximum allowed by the Act. The Bill, which has produced a flood of oratory during the last day or two, has not yet been passed, but the probabilities are that it will reach tiie statute book, and that two Education Districs will be saved out of the six marked by the Commission for abolition. The choice will be made among three, South Canterbury, Nelson and Taranaki. The freehold-leasehold issue arose first on Wednesday night in connection with a proposal that holders of the sections in Te Aroha township on mining leases should be permitted to acquire the freehold. A number of members stonewalled that clause and after an hour or two had been wasted the Prime Minister bowed gracefully to force—a thing he seldom does, by the way—and withdrew the proposal. He was less amenable to argument in the small hours of this morning when objection was made to a clause in his Land Bill proposing the sale of the freehold of certain Crown lands is the mining districts of West-land. Members ■pleaded that the clause was a breach of the agreement to keep party matters out of the way during the life of the National Government, and for half an hour it looked as though another stonewall was going to be undertaken. But the House was very tired, and eventually the Liberal members, having placed llieir protest on record, consented to let the matter go to a division. The Prime Minister won easily. The matter is of some political importance, since it has introduced a distinct element oi discord into the ranks of the Liberals. Naturally the position of the Liberal members of the National Cabinet lias been exceedingly diificuli,