WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1917, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

'AIT INDIGNANT MINORITY. WORDY WARFARE. ■ (Special Correspondent). Wellington, Oct. 11. The purpose and effect of the caucuses held on Tuesday were obvious on •the following day. Members who had taken part in the informal conferences with Ministers, even those who previously had ardently supported the claims of the Second Division League, were content to allow the measure to pass without further debate; but Mr. Hornsby and several of the Labor members thought it necessary to make a final protest against what they conceived to be the inadequacy ■of the pensions provided in certain cases and did so in an impassioned fashion scarcely justified by the circumstances, Mr. Hornsby was allowed to proceed -without any serious interruption, but •Mr. Hindmarsh with his over-flowing indignation and sincerity soon found himself in a wordy warfare with the member for Patea and betrayed into a serious breach of order. THE PRIME MINISTER'S PROTEST. The trouble between Mr. Hindmarsh and Mr. Pearce was speedily settled in the customary way bv the member for Wellington South withdrawing some of-, fensive words he had used, but a little side issue arising out of the main affair was not so easily adjusted, and a lively display of fisticuffs was among the entertainments provided in **!ff IbTiby during the adjournment. It was after Mr,. 'Veitch's comparatively mild allusion to Mr. Okey as "some backblock insignificant creature," however, that the Prime .Minister intervened with a protest against "scenes" which were "disgracing the New Zealand Parliament." Mr. Massey spoke with considerable force and feeling, arid brought the Speaker to his feet with his familiar admonition to members not to interject when speeches were being made, an admonition, of : course, which is consistently ignored.

COST OF LIVING. The Prime. Minister has promised in reply to a question put to him by Dr. Newman that the report of the Cost of Living Committee will he brought down on Monday next, but he cannot undertake that it will be circulated before it .comes up for discussion. Members naturally are a little disconcerted at the prospect of being required to talk about the report without having seen it. but this will not deter some of them from saying a good deal on the subject with 'which it deals. It is believed that portions of the report, and larger portions of the evidence by which it is accompanied, will show that exploitation of a very flagrant character has been going on •since the commencement, of the war and that the Government has done by no ;neans all it might have done to arrest the constant upward tendency of prices. If this really is the ca<e the'debate will be a distinctly interesting one. ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES. It is not unlikely that Mr. Hornsby's Electoral Boundaries Commission Amendment Bill, of which notice has been given, is the fore-runner of a whole host of more or less valid protests against the disturbance of the electoral boundaries. The magnitude of the drift northward during the quinquennial per- ■ iod has necessitated changes of a very •far-reaching character in both islands and there are heart-burnings in the North as well as in the South. All the old schemes for the less frequent readjustment of boundaries, for the maintenance of community of interest and so forth are being re-discussed, but there is no probability of anything being done during the present session to vary the operation of the electoral laws. Dissatisfied individuals and dissatisfied public 'bodies will have an opportunity to submit their grievances to the commission■crs, but judging from previous experiences there is little chance of any material alteration being made.