PARLIAMENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1194, 1 August 1911, Page 7

PARLIAMENT.

NEWS AND NOTES. INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION, ■ Some employers are ■ apprehensive that the amendment to the industrial ■ Conciliation and Arbitration Act, which is being introduced by the Hon. J. A. Millar, may contain a provision relating to contract?, which in.tho past has given rise to considerable contention in tho Arbitration Court. Tho clause feared by the employers would make it incumbent upon them, should they* let .a labour contract, to pay a sum in any casa not less than the rato -of wages recognised ■toy the Court for tho class of work .upon which the contractor has , bean engaged. Employers object to it upon the ground that in some instances it encourages men who have acoepted a contract rate to take things easy and rely upon tho saving clause, instead of Hyon their own exertion?, in obtaining a monetary return. Mr. Millar, however, stated yesterday that his new Bill would consist solely of machinery amendments. ' SHIPPING AND SEAMEN BILL. , ' The Minister i'or Marine has intro- '. duced a Bill to amend the Shipping and • Seamen Act, which having received the i Royal Assent has now come into opera(tion. Tho condition on which the Act was approved by the Imperial authorities was that the provisions regarding bills of lading should not apply to goods shipped in Great Britain for transport , to New Zealand. The new Bill proposes ; tihe' repeal of the clause in question, and ; its effect will be that while tho New ' Zealand Government will .retain its authority in respect of goods shipped from New Zealand, it will have no juris- ■ diction over the bills of lading of vessels trading from Great Britain. . . PRIVATE BILLS. ■ A petition has been received for a private Bill' to be introduced to enable Arthur Henry Field, of Ashburton, coal merchant, to petition the Supreme Court for a dissolution of his marriage with his wife, notwithstanding tho provisions of the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act. The agents for the Bill, which is called the Field Divorce Bill, are Messrs. Bell, Gully, -Bell, and Myers, solicitors, Wellington. Afossrs. Findlay, Dalziell and Co., solicitors, Wellington, are the agents for a private Bill to amend tho Guardian .Trust and' Executors' Company Act, 1883. .The objects of the Bill are to enable the registered office of the Guardian Trust and Executors' Company, c-f New Zea- '* « ¥i d " to k* rem . oTe( l from Dunedin 'to-Auckland, and to increase the powers ©f the company in certain- directions. THE REPRESENTATION COMMISSIONERS. There has been ?ome talk in tho lobbies iregardinjr the leakage of information as tothe doings of the Representation Comimissioners. Certainly more information ithan is-usual appears to have been made public before the presentation of the re,port. One member, referring to the ■matter yesterday, stated very emphatically that the public should'not at this stage be mado acquainted with the fact that on© extra seat is going to tho North Island, instpad of two or three, as waa expected. There also appears to be somo leakage in respect to possible alteration .'.of boundaries. At all events there aro . candidates—would-be members—who stata I that-the nltered boundaries will be such as will make, their eloction a certainty.

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY DEBATE. Tho Address-in-Reply debate is not rnkely to be prolonged to any extent, at .all events by the Opposition. "A statement has been published that the Opposition .consider "the cause of Imperialism has ,jost rather than gained'as tho result of •tho Imperial Conference." This, of course, is a ridiculous assertion, and thi3 paper has been asked to contradict it. - A "COMIC OPERA" BARONET. 'The '[Natal Mercury" dealt with "the Coronation honours list on June 21 in a frank and outspoken article, of which the last passage should interest New Zea'*a.fes:—"The. Dominion Premier,- who stands out with exceptional prominence in the honours list," remarks tho "Mercury," "is Sir Joseph Ward, who blossoms into a Baronet. , As. Sir Joseph Ward has distinguished'himself chiefly by providing the comic opera element at tho 'Conference, one is compelled to wonder how the Premier of New Zealand is made to appear: the colonial statesman above all others .whom the King delights to honour." .' . TOO IMPORTANT. The Hon. J. A. Millar states that 'he does not intend to introduce legislation this session on the lines.of Mr. LloydGeorge's Bill for compulsory insurance against sickness and unemployment. The subject, he thinks, is too complex and important to be dealt -rith by a moribund . Parliament.