BRITISH POLITICS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9156, 1 August 1908, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

THE UNEMPLOYED VOTE. Received July 31, 8.25 a.m. LONDON, July 30. During a discussion in the House of Commons regarding the administration of the Local Government BoarJ, several Labour members urged the removal of the stringent conditions'governing the expenditure of the unemployed vote of £200,000, owing to the expectation of an unusually distressing winter. The Right Hon. J.ihn Burns, President of the Local Government Board, said he did not share the gloomy forebodings. He declared it was impassible to administer the unemployed vote so as to satisfy sentimentalists, but, subject to the rules of good finance, promised to throw all possible work into the winter months. He expected the Royal Commission on Poor Law to report in November, buc if the report proved as revolutionary as some feared, it would do as much harm as good.

GOVERNMENT'S SYSTEM OF TAXATION CRITICISED.

Received July 31, 8.30 a.m. LONDON, July 30. Discussing the Finance Bill in the House of Lords, Lord St. Aldwyn (formerly Sir M. Hicks Beach, and an ex Chancellor of the Exchequer) attribut-d the low price of console to the Government's attacks on property. He complained that the Government displayed no financial foresight or prudence. The Earl of Crewe (secretary for the Colonics) said that the Government th-.ught indirect taxation was quite high enough. The country, he added, was quite able to pay for its defensive services without melodramatic taxation.

APPROPRIATION BILL

Rec.'ived July 31, 11.50 p.m. LONDON, July 31

In the House of Commons the Appropriation Bill was read a second time after a discursive debate embracing the condition of Ireland and the Congo and other questions.

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Received July 31, 11.50 p.-n. LONDON, July 31. In the House of Lords, the Old Age Pensions Bill was read a third time.

IRISH UNIVERSITIES BILL.

Received July 31, 11.50 p.m. LONDON; July 31. The Irish Universities Bill was read a third time in the House of Lords. Lord Killinan's amendment to reinsert in the Bill permission, to privately erect a'chapel within the precincts of a u diversity or college was seconded by the Marquis of Lansdovne, and carried by 32 to 31. The Government waa reminded that the measure whs purely denominational.