POLITICAL NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1570, 14 October 1912, Page 4

POLITICAL NOTES.

WORK IN PROSPECT,

DEFENCE AND LAND BILLS THIS WEEK. 0 Tho Government bad intended to open the second reading dobato on the Land Bill to-morrow, but there is now a noasibility that the consideration of tlio Defonco J3ill in Committee may bo tho first important item of business to bo dealt with by Clio House this week. If this course is decided upon tho Land Bill will bo brought up later in tho week. Tho Publio Works Statement i« in print, and may bo presented to tho House towards ' tho end of this \teek, but it is unlikely' that tho dobhto ujxm tho Statement and its accompanying Estimates will begin before next week. Although tho Order Paper is hc-avily stocked it is still considered possiblo that tho session may end this month. Tho Prime Minister is to inform tho Houso shortly what measures tho Government intonds to go on with. THE LAND BILL. Conversation in tho lobbies with soma prominent Oppositionists indicates that tIM! Lnnd Bill, in which tho Government

proposes to give effect to a portion of its policy, may encounter less bitter and determined opposition than some people havo foretold for it. Although it covers a good deal of ground, the present Laud. Bill does not offend tho susceptibilities of the moderate and extreme leaseholders sitting in Opposition in anything like so great a degree as do some features of the Government land policy which havo yet .to bo put in legislative form. The proposal to give lease in perpetuity tcnanta of ordinary Crown lands tho right to purcliaso their holdings on more liberal terms than have hitherto obtained doos not raise the question of leasehold versus freehold, since these tenants have for some years enjoyed the right to purohase their holdings at present value. If the Government proposes next tcssion to give leas® m-porpetuity tenants of settlement lands tho right to acquire tho freehold tho leasehold partj - will, no doubt, exert all its powers against the proposal. One Opposition member, who was spoken to on Saturday, declared that if such a proposal had been contained in the present Land Bill, the House would have been kept sitting until Christmas. No doubt the Bill as it stands will bo keenly debated, but the general opinion in the lobbies seoms to be that a battle-royal of the rospectivo parties on the land question will bo deferred until the Government brings down a Bill giving full effect to its anouncod policy. LABOUR BILLS.

The Prime Minister hag announced in the House that no attempt will be made to alter tlio constitution of the Arbitration Court until existing industrial disturbances have been settled, and it is very probablo that the principal Labour Bill of the session, i when it is brought down, will bo found to contain little more than a provision making it obligatory in unions to tako a secret ballot of their members before declaring a strike. Other Labour Bills in hand are those which, aim at regulating tho housing conditions of flaxmill workers, and tho Plumbers* Registration Bill, which has been introduced by tho Hon. R. H. Rhodes. It is Srobnblo that at least one other Labour ill will bo submitted to tho House this session.

TAUPO-TOTARA PETITION. The Special Committee of tho House of Representatives set up to consider the petition of tho Taupo-Totara Timber Company for permission to extend its light railway to Lake Taupo is to hold its final , meeting to-dav, and its report may be presented to the House any day this week. Probably an afternoon will be set aside for a discussion upon tho report of the , committee, if tho House so desires, MONDAY SITTINGS. Pursuant to a resolution passed last

week, the House of Representatives will sit to-night, and 'for ' tlio rest' of the ' session, on Mondays, at 7.30 p.m. To. night only Local Bills will be acalt with," 1

A NATIVE LAND PROPOSAL, An important proposal contained in the Native Land Bill is that Which aims at conferring 'on educated Maoris all tho rights and privileges of Europeans. Tho clfcct, if the proposal is given legislative sanction, will bo to enabio those Natives who take up tho privilege to dispose of their lands with all the freedom that a European enjoys in limd transactions, llio Bill is at. present before tho Native Affairs Committeo, which may modify some of its provisions, and the Native Minister (the Hon. W. H. Herries) is on that account not at present disposed to discuss its provisions.

AN INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM.

APPRENTICE TRAINING.

Statements regarding tho bttitudo of masters towards their apprentices wero

made by Mr. W. Scott, a member of a, deputation from tho Christchurch Technical College received by the Hon. Jas. Allen (Minister for Education) 011 Saturday. Mr. Scott is ft member of the Board of Governors of tho collego, and a member of a largo engineering firm in that city.

Ho said 1 that at the Technical Colleges tho young men were getting training that they were not getting in tho workshops of tho Dominion. 110 regretted to eay that tho masters wero not assisting in the direction they should assist with tho apprentices .itndeJ their control. They , should do nioro in the of assisting and educating tho apprentices than they wero doiiifj at tho present time. There was a feeling abroad that they wero paying such a high rate for labour that they should not waste timo instructing those The boys must therefore get their training at tho Technical College. He had obtained quite a number of boys from tho college. Indeed, ho mado it a rule if 110 wanted a boy to apply to tho college, and 110 found they wero the best. At present, however, the state of things in tho workshop at tho Engineering ' Collego was positively dangerous. Such a stnto of things would not be allowed in a private workshop. In the Christchurch Collego the machines were all huddled to' gother, and it was a wonder somo of the boys had not been caught in tho bolts or hurt in somo other way. They wero crowdcd out. At present thcro wero one or two machines to bo orected, and they did not know where to placo them in tho shop. They had also to consider the question of motor-cars. ; Tho tiiuo, was coming when they should take that branch of engineering into consideration at tho Technical College. Tho days of . the steam engine wero going, and the gas engine and tho producer woro coming. No instruction regarding these w(is being given in the college, and they would have to give it. Wo should not keep 011 importing millions of pounds' worth of motor-cars; we. should make thorn here. Electrical work also should bo woro ill evidence.

Mr. Allen said that lio was very 6orry to hear that masters carrying on industries in New Zealand were not giving tho attention they outfit to give to those who entered thiMr workshops as learners. Tho technical schools could not equip boys to tho full extent, the masters must bo relied upon to ba sympathetic and to provide the practical training necessary. He hoped'that what Mr. .Scott had said was not truo of Now Zealand as a whole.