THE SESSION'S WORK
, INCpASmG OUR REmPORCB MENTS. THE CASE OF PRIVATE WEBB, By Telegraph,—Own Correspondent, Wellington, Last Night. There will be much matter that wa| more or less unexpected to come befort the short session of Parliament, to U opened on Tuesday. The business thai had to come before the House and th< Council was the approval of the speech of the Governor-General, and the motion to send a fitting reply to it, and the ex» tension of supply for the Government fof a period of, say, six months until th» House can be prepared to vote eupplj in the ordinary way. The new business will be that relating to the possible increase of reinforcements; which, the Government may propose &J an answer to the appeal by the BritisJj Prime Minister. There is also tfla casf of Private P. C. Webb, M.P. No arrangement has yet been.made a< to who is to move the address in reply! but if precedent is to be followed* th< honor should go to Mr. J. P. Lnke, , wm< ber for Wellington North. The only othei new member in the House is Mr. Urn, member for the Southern Maoris, but a< it is tinusual for a Maori member to tak« part in these affairs, Mr. Uru may not ty the member selected to second the mo< tion, particularly as he has been emi phatic about his independence. Tha endeavor of the Government will be to make the debate as short as possible, and to this end the speech will be made a very modest statement of the reasons for the summoning of Parliament.
After the debate on the Aaddress-iiM Reply. motion, the House will have to deal with a Bill to provide aupply until a date when Parliament may be reasonably certain of meeting again. There will be no Budget and no Estimates this session. The proposals will have to take legislative shape. Mere resolutions will not suffice. The House may feel disposed to discuss at some length the proposals of the Government to give more men from this country to help the Empire in the crucial struggle in France. .Cabinet lias yet to consider the matter, but it is probable that the question will have to come before Cabinet to-morrow (Friday), after the return of Sir Jataes Allen from the South Island. Unfortunately Sir Joseph Ward will not be at the meeting, because he is not to be back in Wellington until Sunday at the earliest. In any case there is a considerable possibility that no announcement of the decision of the Government will be made for some days or until Parliament meets. If Cabinet does not agree about a decision, there may be other complications, but this is an unlikely contingency. There is a r.eport that a motion is to be submitted to the house to give Private Webb leave of absence for the session. There is no possibility of such a motion being moved without notice, as such motions are almost invariably moved. Notice will have to be given, and the following day the motion may be moved. If, as seems probable, it is: debated until 5.30 p.m.—the adjournment hour—it will be placed on the Order Paper as an interrupted debate, and the debate may not be resumed again without the consent of the leader of the House (Mr. Massey). If leave of absence is not voted the Grey seat becomes vacant.
Since last session Mr. Wilford, who used to bo for ceremonial purposes the lender of the Opposition, has joined the Ministry, and there has been some speculation as to who would don his mantle, and at least one member of the House regards this matter as settled, for there is written largely on a scrap of paper pasted on the desk lately used by Mr. Wilford in the House the name, "Henry J. T. Thacker, Christchurch," It is rumored that some other members of the unofficial Opposition are annoyed in consequence, but the chances ate that Br. Thacker will tftto.gßl Mat and .keen it
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Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1918, Page 4
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674THE SESSION'S WORK Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1918, Page 4
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