POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8549, 5 October 1907, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(Prom Oar Parliamentary Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Friday. SLOW PROGRESS.

Never in a long experience of the New Zealand Parliaments have I known so few Bills placed upon the Order Paper during a period of upwards of three months, or so few policy measures passed. Leaving out of the question the Tariff Bili, only one—Land and Income Tax—of the many policy Bills announced by the Government has as yet got through the Lower House, and some are not yet even upon the Order Paper. Notwithstanding this, many Government supporters appear to be sanguine of getting away during the first week in November. There are only two things that can bring about this result!. Either members will have to materially curtail their speeches or the Government will have to drop many of the Bills it has pledged itself to pass before the prorogation. The latter contingency is more likely to arise than the former, if it is really intended to close down in time for the Canterbury Cup and Agricultural Show, which Parliament has for years made the terminal line of its sessional labours. Some members profess to see the "beginning of the end" in the fact that from Monday next the House is to sit on Mondays, but up to date Parliament has scarcely got to the beginning of the beginning and the final rush will have to be of a record character if the main policy measures of the Government are to be put through within another few weeks. Such a proceeding will reasonably lead to the supposition that Parliament has only been playing a game cf legislation; and playing in a matter of so grave a character must result disastrously to the community in the end. DISSATISFACTION. There is much dissatisfaction at the fact that the Public Works Statement is stilt kept in the background. It should have been brought down many ' weeks ago, and doubtless would have been if business considerations were permitted to override political exigency. But that is never the case were party politics is concerned. The Public Works Statement, with its accompanying Estimates, is a thing for Ministers to conjure with, and conjure with it they do for all it is worth. It is no concern of the Government that local bodies are placed in a difficult pos'tion by lack of knowledge of what they may expect, and what urgent works have to be held in abeyance until in some instances it is too late in the season to commence them when funds are available. It is a long time since such considerations have weighed with our administrators. ' Tha. question with them is, unhappily, "How far can tha delay in bringing down the Public Works Statement be made in a party sense a means to an end?" THE McCULLOUGH INCIDENT. It was not to be expected that the case of McCullough, the tinsmith in the railway service at Christchurch, who was suspended for taking a prominent part at a political gathering, would be allowed to drop by the mere tabling of a question and the reply thereto by the Minister. There are too many members of the Hoise of Representatives dependent upon the Labour vote to make it otherwise than a certainty that there would be a fight to a finish upon the floor of the popular Chamber of Parliament.

On Wednesday afternoon last Mr Barclay, member for Dunedin, raised by a side-wind the whole question of the Government's action in the matter. He asked leave to introduce a Bill entitled the Public Service Reform Bill, with the sole object apparently of raising a debate upon McCullough's case,.' and as a result two valuable afternoon sittings were wasted. The "Bill," which was eventually accorded a first reading, has never been printed or presented, and all that the House knows about its contents is the title, which, in the matter of first readings, is handed in on a slip of paper. Yet the rules of the House permit a full discussion upon a mythical Bill, and Mr Barclay and others took advantage of those rules for two consecutive afternoons. The attempted martyrisation of McCullough was a failure, despite the carrying of the first reading of the mythical Bill, because the leaders on both sides of the House failed to see that McCullough had a lee to stand upon. The mover of the Bill himself also failed to show any reason why the suspended railway servant should not iiave been suspended, and the good sense of the House as a whole was with the Government in the discussion which took place. There was a cry raised by several members that the Ministry took no notice of employees in the service of the State who advocate the cause of the Government; and more than one member complained that his election had been jeopardised by the open political action of Government employees without the latter being called to account. That, however, was under the "old regime," j and if Sir Joseph Ward is to be | credited, such a state of things no longer exists. It is unquestionably true that in the past Ministers and outsiders supporting the Government, including servants of the State, were encouraged by the Government to take part against Parliamentary candidates who were not of the "right colour;" but it is refreshing to learn from Sir Joseph Ward that recently more State employees have been discharged or otherwise punished for taking an active part in furthering the political interests of the Government than have been similarly treated for publicly espousing the cause of the Administration. It would be to the advantage of the Ministry if its chief brought down a return in substantiation of his statement. Setting aside one's natural conviction that men employed by the Government must rigkPy conform to the conditions of their employment, I may state that most of the members I have spoken to on the subject of McCullough's suspension pronounce the verdict of "serve him right!" There is always the alternative to a man to retire from a service with which he is dissatisfied, and there should be no more compulsion on the

part of a Government to retain a dissatisfied servant than for a private company to keep in its employ a servant who seeks to affect its interests. I To talk about serfdom because a man is required to be loyal to his employer is to talk nonsense. RESENTED. Having said so much on one point of the question, let me make a remark per contra as far as the attitude of the Ministry is concerned in connection with the attempt to squelch the discussion. Undoubtedly it must have been very irritating to the Government to find their progress blocked by Mr Barclay's adroit motion, but as it was strictly within the rules of the.-, House, it was injudicious on the part of Ministers to support the "previous, question," which had been moved by Mr Bennett, with or without their connivance, to terminate an unpleasant and unprofitable debate. The House resented this, and a defeat was the result. It was not directly a Government motion, and, so far, could not be considered a defeat of the Government, but the fact remains that the Ministry voted en bloc on the losing side. There were probably many who considered the discussion of Mr Barclay's "Bill" a waste of time, and would have been better pleased had it not originated, who yet objected to the strangling principle being applied to the discussion; of any public question. Hence they voted in favour of free discussion, and the "previous question," which: means "that the question of the first reading be not now put," was negatived by a majority of 12 and the debate continued. The first reading: was also agreed to.