WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1920, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE SAMOAJT PROBLEM. i INDENTURED (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, August 2. The debate on the Samoan Report, which was carried on till the lengthening hours of Saturday morning, will not. make a very edifying contribution to the records of the House of Representatives. Of course the bone of contention was the question of indentured labour and even the Minister af Internal Affairs and Ms colleagues could urge nothing further than the necesity of keeping the existing plantations from going to rack and ruin. The leader of tyie Opposition and the other speakers on his side of the House gave a rather grudging assent to the system as a temporary expedient, and the Prime Minister undertook that at the earliest possible moment the whole position would be reviewed and placed upon a better 'footing. LABOUR'S. DENUNCIATION. Of course Mr H. E. Holland, the chairman of the Labour Party, who day by day is becoming less like an effective leader, denounced the whole of the island administration from beginning to end. He would have the Natives exercise the same power of self-determin-ation as he would give to Ireland or, presumably, to any otber part of the Empire, and if they desired it, would leave them to shift for themselves in the great work of reconstruction which will be taxing the genius and resources of the world during the next twenty or thirty j'ears. But the general feeling in the House was that the Government was making an honest effort to solve the problem in the best intrests of the Samoan people and with credit to the Dominion. THE GAMING BILL. The Legislative Council has returned ■ the Gaming Amendment Bill to the House with several important amendments, all aimed at making the lot of the bookmaker even harder than it would be under the original measure. One of the most discussed x of the new provisions is an addition definition of bookmaker, which is intended to restrain the "amateur" layer of the odds, who, if this provision is adopted by the House, will be able to accommodate only one of his clients on each horse, a restricted and hazardous business which ■would not be likely to bring- much grist to "bis mill. Sir Francis Bell, who had charge of the Bill in the Council, expects the House will demand a conference on the amendments, but is hopeful of their becoming law. TOTALISATOR AND PERMITS. Particulars of Mr. George Hunter's Gaming Amendment Bill No. 2 are now available and are exercising the "anti-racing", members of the House even more than are the Council's amendments to Bill "No. 1". Mr Hunter proposes that thirty-eight, additional totalisator permits should be issued this season, twenty to trotting clubs, ten to country clubs and eight to hunt clubs. The complaints bitherto have been that the metropolitan clubs have had more sian their fair share of permits for flat racing and that the trotting enthusiasts have been very badly treated in this respect in comparison with the followers of the older sport. Mr Hunter's Bill will be much helped by the prospect of the extinction of the bookmaker, but most of all by the personal popularity of the member for Waipawa.