POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8512, 17 August 1907, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(From Our Parliamentary Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, August 16. WASTE OF TIME. Business in Parliament progresses slowly, and there is every indication that there will be the usual rush towards the close of the session, when the most important measures will be dealt with without that calm deliberation which is essential to effective law-making. Upon an average the best part of a couple of days a week is wasted on frivolous and useless disussion. Wednesday evening last was practically wasted evening, and Thursday afternoon was entirely devoted to a discussion on a point which, it was supposed, had recently been settled. It related to v a report of the Public Petitions Committee that it had no recommendation to make upon various petitions for grants fo rpublic works. A few days previously the Premier had emphatically intimated that the Government would not be bound by any recommendation of the Committee in regard to such works, as it was for the Government, guided by the advice of their officers, to allocate the vote for works considered most advantageous in the public interest; yet, de- ! spite this, the whole of Thursday afternoon's sitting was devoted to going over the whole ground again. The only practical suggestion made was that by Mr Mander (Marsden) that, in view o* the decision of the Government, it would be well to have an advertisement published in every paper in the colony notifying the uselessness of sending in petitions to Parliament for grants of money, and so save trouble and expense to .thousands of colonists. No notice was taken of the suggestion at the time,' but probably it will be acted upon in some way or other. PRIVATE MEMBERS' BILLS.

The Premier has given notice to move that the Government will in future take Wednesdays for Government business. Private members' Bills will, therefore, be dependent upon the will of the Leader of the House for the rest of the session. It would perhaps be well if this were the case from the beginning of each session, c,-. very little good results from brought forward by private members.

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL BILL. On Wednesday night Sir William Steward's Bill for the election of the Legislative Council, embody iig Mr Wilford's amendment permitting women to be nominated for election to that Chamber, was carried by a majority of seven. I have already referred to the hypocrisy of this proposal and need say no more about it. The Council will know how to deal with the Bill when it comes before it. The feature of Wednesday's discussion was the earnest support given to Mr Wilford's amendment by the Premier, while he voted against the measure as a whole. There was, of course, nothing necessarily inconsistent about this. He has, doubtless, an idea that the calm repose of the Legislative boudoir would suit the ladies if it were decided to give them a direct hand in legislative work; but the patronage that the present system confers upon the head of the Government is too much valued by him to be lightly cast aside. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

Y°ar after year the Government Printing Office has cast upon it heavier and heavier burdeni, and with the increasing pressure upon that branch of the Government service it will not be long before the present huge but inconvenient State printing office will have to be materi • ally enlarged. The question arises whether all the printing done during the session is necessary in the public interest. Scores of costly Parliamentary papers are shed from the press which no one ever reads, and the only object of printing them appears to be to include them in the appendices to the House and Council, which the present generation rarely looks at and future generations will ignore except perhaps to cynically comment upon. Apart from the cost of compilation, the printed Parliamentary papers presented during the first seven weeks of this session have cost about £3,000. This, of course, does not include the multitude of Bills which flood the House, or the printing of Hansard, which probably not one per cent, of the community reads systematically.

THE ESTIMATES. There have been some interesting discussions on the Estimates during the past week or so, though most of the observations made on the votes under review have not been new. As a matter of fact, the Estimates generally provide food for discussions of the parish pump order. Still there are occasions when members are found capable of taking more than a parochial view of matters. When the Post and Telegraph vote was before the House, there was a general demand for consideration of the backblocks postmasters and postmistresses who do valuable public service on a pittance which allows them to slowly starve without the hope of coming upon any Charitable Aid Board. Mr Massey drew attention to the fact that the average amount paid to country postmasters panned out at £lB per annum, or 6s a week, and he was supported by other members in a demand for more generous consideration for these officials. He was not successful, however, as the total vote for that branch of the Depart ment was passed unaltered. OLD AGE PENSIONS.

A good deal of discussion arose on the old-age pensions vote respecting the severity with which old age pensioners are often treated for lapse from sobriety. Mr Hornsby was the first to draw attention to the subject, and he had several supporters. There was a difference, he said, between punishing a man and persecuting him. An old age pensioner possibly had a

drink or two after getting his pension, and became whatf was known as "tight." The master was reported by the police to the Registrar, and the man was deprived of his pension for five years. Thie, said Mr Hornsby, was a most outrageous punishment, and' doubtless the statement had the approval of every member who was not a prohibition fanatic who would sacrifice every kindly feeling for the fetish of his fad. Mr Hornsby fully realised that when a pensioner drank to excess he should be punished, but the

penalty inflicted was outrageous,