POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8535, 14 September 1907, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(From Our Parliamentary Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Friday. FLOUR DUTY. When the flour duty came up for consideration in connection with the Tariff Bill schedule on Wednesday, the Premier took the earliest opportunity of counterfbiling Mr Hogg's expected amendment to abolish the proposed impost upon flour. He got in a "Ministerial statement" before the question had an opportunity of being discussed, and showed a generalship where his supporters eagerly looked for it? display to save him and themselves from a repetition of the trouble that occurred over the mining machinery impost. Sir Joseph entirely cut the ground from under Mr Hogg's feet by at once announcing that he had a scheme which would meet the views of theadvo' cates of cheap flour and bread without doing anything to damage the wheat growing and milling industries. The outstanding feature of the proposal is that, on an important point, which up to then appeared likely to place the Premier and certain of his followers "in a hole," the former was, by his astuteness and manifest honesty of purpoje, able to outflank his enemy, and secure for the consumer immunity from the coercion of wheat, flcur, and bakers' rings. The price of bread was admitted to be dependent upon the price of flour, which in its turn was dependent upon the price of wheat. Sir Joseph Ward's pro- j position was to regulate all three. Independent;' legislation would,' he j said, have to be introduced which would give the Governor-in-Council power to remove the duty on flour when the price, locally, had attained a certain limit. The Bill would, have to be so framed that the consumer of bread would have to pay only a fair price. He proposed to bring in legislation dealing with the three matters he had referred to. He had net got all the information connected with the subject, but he took it that when flour rose to, say, £lO 10s or £ll per ton—unless wheat was ruling at an enormously high price outside —they would require to have the power to remove the duty. They would also require to have the price for the 21b and 41b loaf fixed throughout New Zealand. Unless this were done there would be a weakness in the chain. If in a haphazard way Parliament was to strike out the duty on flour, it would be doing a serious injustice to many people in New Zealand. He thought every member would agree with him that the remedy he proposed was the only safe one to adopt. As a consequence of this announcement, instead of a close vot3 upon tlie proposed abolition of duty, the amendment moved by Mr Hogg was overwhelmingly defeated by 49 to 18. The Premier intimated that" potatoes would be treated in a similar manner, and thu3 the three great commodities of life —flour, bread, and potatoes—have some chance of being kept considerady under famine prices despite the operation of rings. The contention of Mr Fisher that there is an ehment of danger in leaving the matter in the hands of the Governor-in-Council has some force. Thero are rather too many things left to the Governor-in-Coun-cil, but in this matter it would be difficult to suggest any more satisfactory way of dealing with the question seeing that no Act of Parliament can anticipate market conditions for. a year in. advance. Something has to be trusted to the Government, and in this instance there is no reason to suppose that the Premier is not sincere and absolutely honest in his expressed desire to give the people cheap flour and bread —as cheap as possible at any rate — and at the same time protect the wheat-growers from becoming the victims of outside rings which our" legislation could not interfere with. A "BIG ORDER." Parliament has yet a very "big order" on hand. So far the real legislation of the session has hardly been touched. A Pure Food Bill has passed the Lower House ar.d is now before the Council, the Estimates have been passed, and the Tariff Bill will probably be disposed of by the time this reaches you. This is the result of just upon three months' labour. It is a trifle to the work yet to come. There are the Land and Income Bill, the Land Bill proper, the Land Endowments Bill, the Native Lands Bill, the Bill to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the Factories Act Amendment Bill, the recently-promised Bill to adjust the price of flour, wheat and bread, an Infant Life Protection Bill, and several other important measures which the Premier is pledged to pass before the session closes "if it takes until Christmas and after." There are other minor Bills upon the Order Paper, which will add somewhat to the prolongation of the session. It will be seen from this that unless there is a "burst up" on one or other of the big policy measures, the session bids fair to establish a record for duration. It must be borne in mind that the Council has to deal with these measures after they leave the House, and that there is now a debating element in that body which has hitherto—for years at any rate -been non-existent; so that a good deal of time will be absorbed by the Council in discussing the larger measures. INFANT LIFE PROTECTION. The Council has had so little real business before it lately that it has been for more than a fortnight dis- | cussing an abstract motion upon in- j fant life protection. The motion, | which war> proposed by Dr. Collins, was really one to obtain authority to discuss the question. After all these days of debate the Council has given itself that authority; but, members having exhausted themselves, no more will be heard upon the subject until the promised Bill to amend the Infant Life Protection Act comes down. The discussion, though purely academic, has been illuminating, and the speakers have shown an unusual acquaintance with the subject discussed. There has not been a better debate in the Council during the past decade, and the light that has been shed upon the question of infant life protection is bound to result in something practical in the way of legisla • tion.

! SLIGHTLY INFORMAL. The Clerk of the Waipawa Road Board through Mr C. Hal', the member for the district, has presented a communication to the House stating that the Board, last Wednesday, carried a resolution approving the boundaries of the proposed Waipawa borough as set out in the Waipawa Borough Bill. The presentation of the resolution was quite .informal, but the House generously decided to overlook the matter and allow it to be laid on the table. WOODVILLE-AOHANGA ROAD. Mr R. B. Ross (Pahiatua), oit Wednesday last, presented a petition from settlers asking assistance towards opening up the WoodyilleAohanga road, as the shortest iouta from Makuri or Pongaroa to tb.3 Mangatainoka'railway station.