WORK OF THE SESSION

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 14, 11 October 1907, Page 4

WORK OF THE SESSION

t According to custom, the motion for Mbnday sittings of the House of Representatives, moved by the Premier yesterday, was made the occasion of an announcement concerning the • Government's programme for the remaining weeks of the session. In taking stock of what has been done, and what remains for Parliament to do, we are struck by the fact that although Sir Joseph Ward has set an excellent example in placing upon the Order Paper only /those measures respecting which the Government has real intentions, the work to be done in the last few weeks bears the usual disproportion, in point both of volume and of importance, to the achievement of the months that have already, elapsed. A Tariff Bill that was treated in a spirit free from contentiousness,' and a Land and Income Assessment Bill that the Opposition, recognising the hopelessness of argument against the s sturdy party loyalty of the Government benches, refrained from obstructing in a spirit, of faction —these are 'not. large set-ofl's against the waste of time during July and August, and cannot be put forward as great and labbrious achievements. The fifteen weeks have been spent less badly than usual, but they have been full of ,Waste and unprofitable talk.

The programme of work which the Government expects to do i includes the Land Bill, the Meikle Acquittal Bill, the National Endowment Bill, the Native Land Bill, .the Railway Classification Bill, the Civil • Service Superannuation Bill, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act Amendment Bill, the Mour and Potato Bill, and the. Anti-Gam-bling Bill. This mass of contentious legislation the Premier expects to place upon the Statute Book "before the end of November." At the rate of progress hitherto observed, the work could not be done by the end of the summer, but- nobody—not even the Premier, who defends the work of the last fifteen weeks—would suggest that that rate of progress should be maintained. Even if Parliament sets seriously to work, wasting no time, but abstaining from wild haste, six weeks is too short a period to allow proper Consideration to :be given to.the important Bills yet to be dealt with. We are not amongst those heroic "but unpractical people who would like Parliament to disturb our peace and avocations for months to come. _ Thereas no occasion to crowd the Statute Book as if national progress depended on the fatness of the volume; the country will lose nothing by the postponement of most of the Bills referred to in favour of the Native-Land Bill. That-Bill, we were all led to believe, would be one of the early Bills of the session, and there is no excuse for its postponement. Its importance transcends that of all the other measures in the Government's programme, with the exception of the Tariff Bill, and it will be far better, if other work is' to be persisted in, that it, at any rate, should be rescued from the chaos and hurry that seem certain this year to perpetuate that annual scandal—the end-of-the-session rush.