WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE SESSION END% SPEEDING UP LEGISLATION. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 11. The session of Parliament, which ended shortly after 10 o'clock last night, may or may not occupy the place in history Ministers have assigned to it. Everything will depend upon the fruits of the legislation that has been crammed into its hurried days. But whether these prove for good or evil, or, aa is so often the case, neither for the one ncr the other, it certainly will be remembered for many a long day for its assertion and maintenance of undisputed Cabinet rule and for the ready submission of the private member in the sacred name of patriotism. Never before has the Government got its own way with so little opposition, arid never again, it may be hoped, will the compliance of the private member be so fully justified by, circumstanoMj. HOW IT WAS DON;,. The House having made up its mind aa to the importance of the party leaders getting away to the Peace Conference as speedily as possible, it very sensibly, and collectively, abst/hed from placing any unnecessary obstacle in the way of that desired end. Earely hail more contentious legislation been submitted to Parliament in a single session, and yet scarcely a superfluous word was spoken in either chamber, and the result is a sum of achievement which in normal times might have occupied two or three months. Ministers, on their side, were tactful and conciliatory, and private members, on theirs, were restrained and considerate. To the Labor members, though some of their constituents may not think so, special credit is due for their forbearance and for the assistance they gave in the work of the session

AN UNPLEASANT EPISODE The Minister of Defence, as was inevitable, had to bear the brunt of such criticism as was directed against the Government during the session. Everyone acquainted with tne facts admits in the light of later developments that, on the whole, Sir Allen has acquitted himself remarkablj well in the extremely difficult position he has occupied during the last four years. But his quixotic loyalty to the officers of his department has landed him in various troubles, and the most serious of them all is now revealed by the commissioners' report on the Wanganui detention barracks In the closing hours of the session Mr. H. E. Holland asked the Minister a question concerning the appointment and re-ap-pointment of Lieutenant Crompton, who is held mainly responsible for the brutalities practised at the barracks, and though no reply was vouchsafed at the time some explanation from the political head of the department must be forthcoming. THE PEACE it is an opeu secret to-day that Mr. Massey and fciir Joseph Ward will leave for London this evening. They will proceed as far as Colon by one of the direct liners, and there will be picked up by ft cruiser that will convey them to their destination Probably they will reach London in the second week in January in good time to take part in the celebration that will precede the formal gathering of the Empire's representatives and the subsequent all-important conference of the nations. It is expected that the party leaders will be detained at Home till well on towards the end of May, and that they will not return to New Zealand till the beginning of July. Then Parliament will meet and the general election will follow in December.