BRITISH PARLIAMENT OPENED BY KING EDWARD.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 25, 30 January 1908, Page 7

BRITISH PARLIAMENT OPENED BY KING EDWARD.

THE KING'S SPEECH. LEGISLATION PROMISED. By Telegraph.— Press A6sooiation.— Copyright (Received January 30, 8.15 a.m.) LONDON, 29th January. ' The session of Parliament was opened by King Edward and Queen Alexandra. ! Much enthusiasm was shown by the public. j In the King's Speech the Bills promised include Licensing (England and Wales), Education (England and Wales), Hours of Labour in Coal Mines, Housing of tho Working Classes, Valuation of Property (England and Wales, for purposes of taxation), University Education (Ireland), Compulsory Acquisitionof Untenanted Land (Ireland, for relief of j congestion), Improvement and Control of Port and Waterway (London), Protection of Children and Treatment of Juvenile Offenders,, Scottish Land and Valuation. AMENDMENT TO THE ADDRESS. LABOUR IN THE NEW HEBRIDES. LONDON, 29th January. Sir Gilbert Parker, Conservative member for Gravesend, is to- move an amendment to the Address-in-Reply, regretting the unfulfilled pledge of the Government to establish labour conditions in the New Hebrides in accord with the avowed policy in the Transvaal and elsewhere. , THE LABOUR PARTY'S LEADER. LONDON, 29th January. Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P. for Durham (Barnard Castle), has been elected chairman of the Labour party in the House of Commons, in succession to Mr. Keir Hardie. , LEGAL APPOINTMENTS. LONDON, 29th January. It is officially announced that Sir William S. Robson; K.C., Solicitor-Genoral, succeeds the late Sir John Lawson Walton as*Attorney-Gcneral. Mr. Samuel T. Evans, M.P. for MidGlamorganshire, becomes SolicitorGeneral. It is usual When a vacancy occurs in tho ofiico of First Law Officer of the Crown, whether by deatli or by his elevation to tho Bench, to fill it by appointing the Solicitor-General. Sir W. S. Robson, who has occupied chat position since tho present Government came into office, follows precedent by accepting the higher post. 'Ho has sat in Pailioraent since 1395. la the opinion of many, he would have been betterplaced in an administrative capacity — say at the Homo Office— than a$ a judicial adviser. Mr. S..T. Evans has been in Parliament since IJJ9O, and is a prominent Welsh member. According to tho .Pajl Mall Gaaotte, his is one of those acute minds that know the road to success when they see .it. He did not see it'as a solicitor, so he went to the Bar, and has flourished. He was called to 1 the Bar in 1891, and became K.C. teu yearslater. IRISH AFFAIRS. THE LORDS AND THE LAND QUESTION. LONDON, 29th January. Mr. Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, in a speech at North Bristol, emphasised his difficulties in dealing with Irish affairs in the face 'of a population bent on getting Home Rule. The whole trouble in Ireland, Mr. Birrell continued, arose out of the land question; but for the land Ireland would be the most crimeless country in the world. Yet the Lords, who were parties to the dispute, had mutilated I the Land Bills, and had thereby inj creased tho discontent, and juries were, as a consequence, disinclined to convict.