IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2363, 31 May 1892, Page 4

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

London, May 26. In tlio House of Commons the Bill introduced by the Right Hon. James Stansell, M.P. for Halifax, fixing the period and occupation by electors at three months, has passed its second reading by a majority of 200. The Government offered no opposition to the measure.

May 27. Mr Balfour has announced that the dissolution will take place shortly. Mr F. Schnadhorst, Secretary of the National Liberal Federation, says that the majority gained by the Government on the Irish Local Government Bill was the result of secret whipping, and that the situation is unaltered by the victory. The Gladstonian leaders, or rather those of the Liberal party, privately declare that they are not in any way connected with the Opposition extremists. Loid Roseberry, speaking at Birmingham, declared that Mr Chamberlain had converted one of the foremost Liberal towns into a Conservative pocket borough. Referring to the Marquis of Salisbury’s Ulster speech, Lord Roseberry said that the language of Lord George Gordon was worse. The power of the Empire, he argued, was not armies, fleets, treasure, or population, but liberty and justice. In the House of Commons the Small Holdings Bill has passed through all its stages. Replying to Earl Dunraven’s advocacy of preferential treatment with regard to Canada, Mr Balfour said iu the House of Commons to-day that the adoption of such a policy would necessitate the cancellation of all British treaty engagements, especially the Zollvere n, which was of greater value to Great Britain than any benefit likely to be derived under the course proposed.

THE KANAKA QUESTION. London, May 26. In the Blue-book issued on the employment of Kanaka labor iu Queensland Lord Charles Scott, Admiral on the Australian station, admits that the regulations regarding that traffic, which were adopted in 1884, are, if strictly enforced, sufficient to prevent a recurrence of the abuses that formerly existed in connection with the employment of colored labor in Queensland. Mr Kinnaird Rose in a long and able letter, copies of which have been sent to every member of the House of Commons, states that it is impossible to urge a word against the traffic since 1880, and that the charges of white people having committed outrages on Kanaka women are a wicked slander. He quotes from the Rev. Alexander Smith’s testimony as to the kind treatment of the Kanakas. Mr Rose attributes the opposition to the renewal of the traffic to wire-pulling by the members of the new unionism. May 27.

Tn the House of Commons to-day Baron de Worms, Political Secretary in the Colonial Office, stated that the motion carried in the Victorian Legislative Assembly on Wednesday last, viewing with disapprobation Hie introduction of Kanaka labour in Queensland, involved a question which the great colonies must themselves settle without Imperial intervention.

On the motion to go into Committee of Supply, Mr Samuel Smith, member for Flintshire, moved an amendment of which he had previously given notice, to reopen the discussion on the renewal of coloured labour in Queensland. He denounced the traffic as veiled slavery, and declared it would tend to depopulate the islands. He declared that the aborigines in the colony were shot down like dogs until there were but few remaining. Bai’on de Worms in a long speech asserted that there was no proof of such terrible charges as alleged against the traffic by Mr Smith. He denied the existence of abuses or cruelties, and said the vetoing of the Act by the Imperial Government would not prevent the traffic, which would continue, possibly without restrictions. He cited the testimony of Dr ftaumare# Smith, Primate of New South Wales, the Rev. Alexander Smith, and Bishop Selwyn, The amendment was rejected to by 169 to 97.

Mr J. F. Garrick, the Agent-General for Queensland, in a letter to the Times, declares that the statement made by Mr S. Smith in the House of Commons, to the effect that 10,000 aborigines in Queensland were massacred, and that a man twenty years ago received a permit from the Government fqr killing blacks, was a grossly calumnious and insulting lie. Brisbane, May 28. The Marine Board have refused to allow the brig Parra to leave for the South Seas on a recruiting voyage, as the regulations have not been complied with. THE RAINHILL AND WINDSOR MURDERS. Mki.hournk, May 28. The Cabinet have decided to burn the papers left by Deeming, because their publication would prove injurious to the public mind. A letter to the Liverpool Mercury contained many extraordinary charges against a person who is still Jiving ; while the letters addressed to the local papers contained a rash and obviously untrue statement of accusations against persons residing in Sydney and Melbourne. The style of composition is a mixture of bombast and hysterical complaints against everyone in general, and gross personalities disfigure every page.