BRITISH POLITICS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8369, 28 February 1907, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

. ARMY MEAT SUPPLIES. Received February 27, 8.20 a.m. [LONDON, February 26. Replying to Mr R. Hunt (Liberal Unionist member for the Ludlow Division of Shropshire, recently left off the official list of the Unionist Party for chaffing Mr Balfour about philosophy), Mr Haldane gave the following figures as to the amounts of preserved meats, colonial and foreign, bought for the Army during the successive periods: —For 38 months ending May, 1902. colonial 26,500,0001b5, foreign 31,500,0001bs; 1903 to 1904, colonial 400,0001b5, foreign l,250,0001bs; 1904 to 1905.. colonial 52,0001b5, foreign 1,000,000 lbs; 1905 to 1906, colonial 280,000 lbs, foreign 1,500,0001b5. Since April last the amounts purchased are 26,9881bs colonial and upwards of 2,000,0001 bs foreign. / PASSIVE RESISTERS' RELIEF BILL. Received Last Night, 9.59 o'clock. LONDON, February 27. By 264 to 109 .leave was given to introduce Mr McKenna's Passive Resisters' Relief Bill enabling the controlling authority, after paying teachers their full salary, to recover one-fifteenth from the managers' of non-provided schools as a fraction of the salary of a teacher giving denominational instruction. Mr Balfour said that under the Bill denominationalists would still have to pay rates for a form of teaching that was unsatisfactory to them and have to pay again for what they wanted. The measure would not bring peace much nearer. Received Last Night, 11.11 o'clock. LONDON, February 27. The minority against Mr McKenna's Bill included 45 Irish Nationalists. The latter's forcing the division against the Bill greatly irritated the Noncomformist group. ARMY REORGANISATION. Received February 27, 8.20 a.m. LONDON, February 26. The Daily Telegraph eulogises Mr Haldane for placing the territorials under regular major-generals, and says the proposals regarding the volunteers are the best that have ever been propounded. The Daily Mail says the reorganisation is a great statesmanlike scheme. The Standard considers that the provision against the unexpected in painfully scanty. The Daily News is not enthusiastic, and doubts whether further economy, in pursuance of the people's mandate at the general election, is possible without the abandonment of the linked battalions system. Several newspapers emphasised the opinion that in Mr jHaldane's scheme the voluntary system is on its last trial. Received Last Night, 11.30 o'clock. 1 LONDON, February 27. Mr Haldane explained that the county associations may exempt territorials on payment of 10s in cases where men are unable to comply with the regulations, giving as an instance a worker changing his home. : AUSTRALIAN STATES CONSTITUTION BILL. Received Last Night, 11.15 o'clock. LONDON, February 27. The Australian States Constitution Bill has been read a second time in the House of Lords. i new education; bill. I Received February 27, 8.55 a.m. LONDON, February 26. Mr Reg. McKenna, President of the Board of Education, has announced that the Government will introduce a new Education Bill, comprising the non-controversial clauses of the Bill that the House of Lords killed last session.