NEWS AND NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 47, 19 November 1907, Page 6

NEWS AND NOTES.

Mr. Wilford proposes a. unique method of shortening the length of the, session and expediting business. Yesterdayi, he -moved \"That the- Governments be >. requested to bring in a Bill to amend the 1 Payment to Mombers Act, 1904, on 1 the following lines.— To provide that the maxinjhm salary of members be £350 a year, and also to.provide that, such sum of ;£3sp~ a, year be reduced by £1 l>er day ; for everyi.day. that the House is sitting." Mr. Wilford's idea is that a fifty-days' session would be long onough to conduct public Business. After eight, years' of Parliamentary experience he considers that this proposal'would have the offect of preventing stone-walling, tedious obstruction and wearisome repetition ot arguments.

Mr. C. M. Gray (Christchurch North), yesterday presented a'petition to. the House of Representatives from T. E. Taylor and 9399 othors, praying that the House, would take stops to commute the sentences of imprisonment passed on bookmakers at: Christchurch, or to take such steps !for relief 'as may be thought fit. The petitioners state that the prosecutions were initiated and carried out by the Canterbury Jockey Club with the sole object of protecting the revenue of • the totalisator, and were not authorised or countenanced'by the Police Department. The petitioners also state that tho,-santenc.es. .were unjustifiable, excessive, and not commensurate with the offence witji tyhich the men wero charged; that the so-called, wilful trespass was not an ordinary-offence, so termed,' but in reality a breach of r a by-law framed by the trustees of Christchurch,-Public Racecourse Reserve prohibiting betting except bv means of ,the tot-alisator. The petitioners believed the men had-" been sent- to, prison' not for an act of trespass, hut f.or. competing with the totalisator. The,.petition was 1 referred direct to the, Gbvornmejiti -

.There was a feeling abroad-.-in, the lobbies .yesterday that the session swill-be extendi*! beyond/ Thursday morning* -probably till Friday night or Saturday- niorning. . There also seems to -be ■ a probability, that the Gaming and Lotteries Bill'' wijl be allowed to stand over till next sessipn;'.',

Members continue tf> receive, many telegrams from men in'the railway, service protesting against the Classification';-'Bill: The Leader of the Opposition--has received so many tiiat he is unable to Yreply.."tip all. The latest is from a meeting oFguards,'protesting that the increases in the, BilFare much too 5ma11.... The guards consider that they should be classed by themselves,',and;.not counted with shunters, storemen, ejc... the telegram states_ that the feeling, of- the meeting was that it Was an insult to offer guards £40 per annum less than letter-carriers.,