POLITICAL NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 4, 5 July 1910, Page 6

POLITICAL NOTES.

The chief political topic in the lobbies, in Ministerial waiting-rooms, corridors, the foot and the head of stairs in Parliament Buildings this morning was the dollar drama at Reno. Members of both Houses wore eagerly awaiting the news, and the result brought on a large num- i ber of inquests on the much-regretted I professional decease of the resurrected Jeffries. The legislators, of coi/rse, took a i statesmanlike view of the battle. Passing the juries one heard scraps of "bad effect on the black races all over the world." RAILWAY CHANGES. A paragraph to which significance has been attached in some queers appeared in the Governor's Speech. : "Returns will be laid before you," it was stated, I "showing the results of traffic throughout our railway system, and your attention will be directed to various questions of importance in connection with the management and extension ,of that branch of the service." Some commentators expressed an opinion that a proposal, which has been mooted more than oiice, was to be adopted by the Government. The theory was that Mr. M'Villy (now Chief Clerk) was to be Under-Secretary, and that the heads of the three chief departments (traffic, mechanical, and locomotive engineering) were to be more closely associated with the Minister in the general management of the railways. Briefly, the doctrine was that the Minister would be practically chairman of the railway executive — a compromise between Ministerial and commissioner administration. This theory, however, is not yet supported in official circles. No such proposal, it is stated, has yet been before the Cabinet. Nothing of that kind has yet been put into shape. It is mentioned that the paragraph foreshadows nothing important except in the traffic department, and that the Government's railway policy, as a whole, will be re-affirmed. The Minister (the Hon. J. A. Millar) stated to-day that constructional work, as well as traffic, was concerned in the programme briefly sketched in the Speech, but nothing definite had yet been arranged. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL REFORM. The Legislative Reform Bill, introduced by» Mr. G. W. Russell, provides that all members of the Council shall go out of office at the expiration of the present Parliament, and thereafter the Council shall be elected in the same way as members of- the House of Representatives, except that the number of Councillors shall be one-half that of the House, and that electorates shall be grouped into groups of four, each group to have two members. The Bill has no chance of passing, but will probably be responsible for an interesting discussion. THE BOOKMAKER. ■ It is understood that the Government's Bill dealing with the subject of gambling will provide for the licensing of bookmakers by Stipendiary Magistrates, in tha same way that before a person can obtain a license for a hotel he must obtain a certificate from a magistrate that he is a fit and proper person for the position.

Tenders are invited for the timber and sawmilling plant and business of the Taumaranui Timber and Sawmilling Company, Ltd., in liquidation, cQnjointly with the bankrupt estate of L. A. Grant, as a going concern. Full particulars are advertised in this issue.