FEDERAL ARBITRATION BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 95, 21 April 1904, Page 5

FEDERAL ARBITRATION BILL.

SIR JOHN FORREST'S FRANK SPEECH. Weighing TTp Possibilities—The Alternative Defects. (By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright.) (Reieived 10.40 a.m.) MELBOURNE, this day. Sir John Forrest, in a speech almost brutal in its frankness, revolted against the pressure to which the Government had been subjected in the past at the hands of the Labour party. The Navigation and Arbitration Bills bad been put in the forefront of the Ministerial programme to assist the Labour party, and the latter had hurried the Ministers on to their doom, and were now going to be their executioners. A new situation has been developed, and the present discussion is on the amendment by Mr. Fisher making the measure apply to civil servants generally. At the outset of the debate there was not a thought of any chance of this amendment being carried, but at the present stage of the debate the chances of carrying it have improved. It is believed that if this happens Mr. Reid may be asked to form a Ministry. Should the amendment be lost, then Mr. Watson's amendment to include railway servants is almost certain to be successful. In that event Mr. Watson may be asked to form a Ministry.