THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 179, 23 July 1901, Page 2

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901.

So far, events this session in the political world in Wellington cannot. be called very exciting. The important measures have 1 met with little opposition, unless, perhaps, the Shops and Offices Bill. Few of them, of course, have yet reached the fighting stage, which, as everyone knows, is the second reading and com* rnittee processes. On the Order Paper at present the most important Bills appear to be the Factories, Referendum, Moneylenders, Fair Rent, Counties, State Fire Insurance, Railway Servants Superannuation, Orchard and Garden Pests, Totalisator Abolition, Cycle Boards, Elective Executive, and the Shops and Offices. Besides these, there are yet to come Bills dealing with a colonial scale of salaries for teachers, establishment of a State coal mine, establishment of a

line of steamers to take produce to South Africa, rendering trusts and combines illegal, and amending the law relating to companies so as to-avoid some of the scandalous transactions that have taken place of late in respect to gold-mining companies. Besides all this, there are the financial and departmental annual statements—public works, education, agricultural, land, mining, &c. — all of which, are open to discus* sion. This makes a pretty big bill of fare, and though the Premier says there is nothing to delay the House and that everything can be finished by September,, it is more than doubtful -whether there will not be almost as long a session as last year. The Referendum Bill is the only one that has made much progress, but it has passed right through the Lower House, and has no\\ only to run the gauntlet of the Legislative Council. The Counties Bill, whieh the one reorganising local government in the country dis-

tricts, is to be referred to a large committee *f the House* after the conference of members of counties, road boards, etc., have finished wtth it* The same thing is to happen to the State Fire Insurance Bill. It will not probably become law this session. It is to be referred to a committee to deal with, and its future success, or non-success, will depend, considerably, on the report of this committee* An air of consider-

able lassitude and lethargy per* vades the House this session. Probably this is owing to the very artificial times of excitement

we have lately had. After visits by Imperial troops and Indian troops, and Dukes and Duchesses, there is naturally enough little stomach on the part of the Government or legislators for the dry-as-dust work of poring and wrangling over line after line of common ordinary domestic legislation, however useful or necessary it may be. This is one of the penalties we have to pay for our pleasures—after the drunk corner the sore head and can’ • work feeling; The Referendum Bill provides that if a measure is passed twice in the Lower House and rejected twice in the Upper House, it shall be referred to a vote of the people* and if they vote in its favour it is to become law. Further, any great question such as Bible-in-Schools, Liquor, Single-Tax. etc., may, by resolution of the House, be referred to the people. Of course, this may be a very useful raeifure or it may not. It may prove to be a check on progressive legislation or it may not. In Switzerland the majority of references to the people have been negatived. Probably in that country the result of thnmeasure has been on the whole rather to give a set back to advanced legislation. Of course, labour measures, such as the Factories and Shops and Offices Bills, will be referred tor the Labour Bills Committee in each House, and will not emerge therefrom for a- considerable time to come.