THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1908. THE COMING SESSION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9107, 5 June 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1908. THE COMING SESSION.

In little morj than three weeks' time the filial session of the present Parliament will commence, and three months later the "battle of the seats" will begin. It is not intended that the session shall be long. The comparatively uncomfortable conditions under which the business will be conducted will be one cause of curtailment, but mainly the desire on the part of the Ministry to avoid controversial matters as far as possible until after the general election will hasten the ororogation. . The programme provided so far is scanty, and on the whole unimportant. The original policy of the present Administration was practically exhausted last session by the passage of the Land Bill, the National Endowment Bill, and a few other policy measures of lesser moment,

and theft; is apparently no desire on the part of the Government to enter upon further great public questions until the pulse of the electors has been felt in December next. The coming session may, therefore, be looked forward to as chiefly a "wash-ing-up" occasion in which defects in previous legislation will be remedied —or attempted to be remedied. The most important among these will be Rlr Millar's bill to amend the Labour laws. In what direction the amendments will go is not very clear, but so far as penalties for breaches of the Arbitration Act are concerned, it may be taken for granted that the imprisonment bogey will be set aside and some other means adopted for securing the due observance of the provision of the Statute. The question of national annuities will crop up and a bill will probably be distributed, Lut nothing more is likely to be done in that matter. It is a subject which the Government will find more advantageous to put before the country during the elections. There will most likely oe Native land legislation, but that will take the form recommended by the Native Land Commission, and will probably cause little trouble to Ministers. The Financial Statement and the Public Works intimates will form the principal subjects of discussion, but as there is again a record surplus, and as the Government promises the usual pre-election liberality in regard to works votes, the Estimates may be expected to have a fairly easy passage. Most of the talking will be for the constituencies through Hansard, and all thoughts and acts will have their birth in the anticipation of what is hopect to grow out of tnem upon the hustings. When the prorogation takes place, members will rush eagerly to their constituencies, and the excitement of the election campaign will more than compensate for the deadly dullness which usually charactsrises a moribund Parliament.