FEDERAL ARBITRATION BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 96, 22 April 1904, Page 5

FEDERAL ARBITRATION BILL.

THE GOVERNMENT DEFEATED.; AN ADJOURNMENT TILL WEDNESDAY. Views of tlie Leaders. (By Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received 9.31 a.m.) MELBOURNE, April 21. Mr. Fisher's amendment, making the Arbitration Bill apply to civil servants, wa3 carried by 38 votes to 29. . MELBOURNE, this day. After the division was taken Mr. Deakin moved an adjournment till Wednesday. He thanked members for the assistance they had accorded him in his capacity of leader of the House in ...seeking to maintain the standard of the Parliament of Australia. After the House had adjourned Mr. Deakin made a statement to the press. He said that the majority against the Government was composed of three secj tions: the first, consisting of those who believed that the Constitution conferred the power to include public servants of the States; the second of those who doubted whether the Constitution conferred that power, but who thought that the High Court ought to determine. The third section believed that tbe Constitution did not confer the power, but supported the proposal in order to oust the Government. Mr. Reid stated that in his experience of politics in Australia he had never known a ease in which individual Ministers left their offices attended by more general expressions of esteem and regret for that feeling which must accompany the defeat of Mr. Deakin and Sir George iurner. Counting pairs, there were forty votes for Mr. Fisher's amendment, and 31 against it. Thirteen Opposition members voted with the Labour party, as well as four Government supporters and 23 Labour members. Eleven members of the Opposition voted with the Government,