POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8554, 12 October 1907, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

J (Parliamentary Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Friday. ACADEMIC DISCUSSIONS. , Up to the present the Legislative Council has had to resort to subterfuge to keep going owing to the luck of legislative food from "another place." Academic discussions Ikivl' been more than ordinarily frequent, ir. the Upper House this session, a - .id while they have been "interest-i-ic enough, judged as one would juric.r a discussion in a debating society,tiu have been simply so much wast-:- < i' breath and printing ink, so far .-•& practical outcome is concerned. On Wednesday last a member of the Upper House moved that in the option. of the Council it was desirable that every man in the colony shoaid be trained to arms. As the Government had already stated tha*; ii would in due course inform the coontry upon its views of military training, and as there was no military, question in' concrete form under theconsideration of the Council, the motion was of course valueless whether carried or negatived. As it happened, neither fate befel it, as it was definitely "indefinitely" adjourned. The mover' was not entertaining, because he had nothing but indifferently narrated historical records of seiges and surprises, ::nd vague generalities in the way of gestions, to place before the members, most of whom yawned, slepi or in fact did anything but listen cloving the fifty minutes the Hon. Meinber was literally addressing the "Chamber." He started with the Boer War, and went back to the timo of Mithradates and the Golden Age of Greece, then came back by zigzag stages to. t|ie 'Boer War and the necessity for training the people of "God's Own Country" to fight the world, if necessary. The irony of circumstance led to a Maori member seconding the motion in order to preserve it 3 existence on the- Order Paper, and after that the Council agreed that it was.time to adjourn the debate for a period sufficiently distant to prevent its revival. AN INSANITARY LEGISLATIVE CHAMBER. T ie usual annual growl has taker, place respecting tne insanitary condition of the House of Representatives and is contiguous lobbies. Both are superheated at times by means o! badly - regulated steampipes and radiators, and both aro draughty or stuffy according to the weather or inattention of those who are paid to protect the health of the "people's chosen." The walls are lined with a textile fabric which catches and fosters the germs of a multitude o.f complaints, and these'steal forth to industriously attack members of the Government or Opposition party regardless of party considerations. This week half of an afternoon sitting was taken up in discussing the insanitary condition of the Representatives' Chamber, which thi.year had caused the illness of many members. The Premier state'], as'his predecessor had stated over and over again for many yeai-s. that he would do what he could to improve matters; and that ended the discussion, an 3 doubtless from that momen/t abolished all remembrance of the complaint from the Minister'. 1 -, mind. The insanitary condition of the House is about the one real thorn upon the stem of the rose of Parliamentary lifg during session time. ANOTHER "BACK-DOWN" IN PROSPECT.' It is becoming more and more evident that the Government will have to "back down" on the boast i: made some weeks ago that it would put through all its policy measure,-, before the prorogation. The session is now well into its fourth month, and so far only the , fringe of the set of policy measures has been touched. Of the three Land Bills and the Native Land Bill only one hap beergot through the Lower House, and iy now in its second reading stage in the Legislative Council. The second land measure —the Land Laws Amendment Bill has been in Committee a week, and not one-third of the clauses have been dealt with. It will probably take another couple of weeks to get it to the third reading stage. The_ Endowment Bill has not yet made its appearance; the Arbitration Act Amendment' Bill is stili before a Parliamentary Committee, the Civil Service Superannuation Bill, is still "in the air," the Judiciary Bi'l has not yet come up for consideration, and a host of other measures of more or less pressing urgency have yet to be distributed. Parliament may sit until the end of November. but beyond that period it will probably be found impossibe to keep the House together, and it is certain that many of the golioy Bills will be still on the Order Paper. It is, therefore,, clear that Ministers will have to jettison many of thv.ir measures, and it may be taken for granted that amongst the discarded Bills will be the Arbitration Amendment Bill, and the Superannuation Bill.