COMING SESSION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 144, 20 June 1928, Page 14

COMING SESSION

"outline of work LICENSING BILL AGAIN SOME CONSOLIDATIONS Everything, is now ready for tho . final.session of tho present Parliament, which opens to-morrow week. For some days past Cabinet has been meeting daily te consider tho , 'legislative programme to bo submitted to members, and tho finishing touches have been put to the . first batch of Bills which will 'bo brought down so soon as tho Ad-dress-in-Reply Debate is disposed of..' . Tho'last-session of a Parliament "is usually devoted to tho all-important buisness'of attracting votes, and: ono party vies with another in seeking to show, that it alono merits tho confidence of the electorate at the General Election, which takcV place within a month or so of tlie dissolution. For this reason, details in respect to legislation very often fail to receive microscopic- attention'because members* pre-, for to indulge, in much platitudinous generalisation as to their own virtues and their political opponents' shortcomings. In the coming session they will be able to do all this and give some consideration to. a moderate amount of Government business as well. The session is not expected to go much beyond -tho end of- September, assuriiing that the Government decides to fix tho date for tho General Election about tho middle of November/so there will not be a. great amount of timo within which to deal with many Bills in addition to the mass of reports and petitions, and general, formal work with which members aro called upon to deal in the courso of a session. ' CONTENTIOUS QUESTIONS. Amongst, the big subjects which will come up again this year, will be Licensing, Summer Time, and Religious Exercises in Schools, but none of these is. a-strictly party matter, and therefore it does not figure as one of tho items I for submission by the Government. Perhaps tho Prime Minister'will himself bring/in a Licensing Bill again, but tho other highly contentious, yet nonparty measures, will, bo fathered by private members. Mr..Coates has not indicated whether tho House will bo.given an early opportunity to .discuss tho licensing question, but this is what tho Prohibitionist members in the House desire, their idea being, that if the Legislative Council again acts contrary to their wishes, especially -with respect to the bare majority- question, they may havo a further chance of trying to get their way beforo ,tho session closes. Whether Mr. Coates presents a. different Bill from' that of last year or not, the Licensing question will tend to overshadow most matters during tho session, and there is the' ever-present risk that it may become thedorhinant issue at tho General Election. ■ / x So far as daylight-saving is concerned, Mr. Sidey, who last year was successful in inducing Parliament to give a four months' trial to his Summer Timo Bill, will be seeking to have the Act, inado permanent, but in view of tho hos: tility of the farmers and the approach of the election, ho has expressed his doubts of seeing his most ardent desire consummated this year. In any case,' ' this subject should bo productive of a keen fight.. ' When the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill was b,eforo the House last year^ -Mr. Atmore succeeded in having tho'progress of the measure blocked by the passage of an, amendment conferring on the promoters of the Bill the opportunity of considering the application of the Nelson system, as recoriimended. by tho Education- Committee. Recent utterances of supporters of Bible-reading in schoojls, however, show little proof of their conversion to tho Nelson-system, so it is likely that tho struggle will be renewed much on the same lines as in previous years. ■ CONSOLIDATION AND AMEND- : -MENT. • .. Of strietly\y Government business somthing in the way of "window dressing" is usually looked for in election years, but this is reserved as a rule for the manifesto .stage of an election campaign. ' The chief planks in the platform of the Coates Government when it went to tho country in 1925 have since been put into legislative form, so that in this respect there will be-"but little to do in the coming session. - ' It is intended to consolidate a number of statutes, besides which there will bo'the mass of amending work which now seems to have become a recbg-* nisodfeaturo of.our legislative system every year. ■An Act is passed one session, and it is no sooner on the Statute Book "than it is discovered that something needs'to bo put right, put in, or put out,'so that tho process of amendment has become perennial. The legislators blamo tho law draughtsmen for the sins' of omission or commission, but the.public prefers to assign the blame, if any, to legislative"scurry and end-of-scssion rush, for it .is often late beforo the. most important Bills sco the light. At the end of a session, when tho Government is'trying to ring down tho cur-, tain as fast asJPaliamcnt will pemit it to do so, draughtsmen, being but human, can only do their best, besides which it -has to bo remembered that departmental officials charged'with tho duty, of administering Acts will never cease from trying to get amendments or new.Bills through so long as tho front door of Parliament House is open. Thero was one session when an ovor-optiniis-tic Department actually -presented a Bill to a Minister for passage that year on the very morning when tho session was winding up. Nqcdlcss to say, it was deferred. Amongs tho Bills to bo dealt with this year will bo a. measure having for its object the improvement of tho law in regard to the treatment and care of mental defectives; a Bill proposing a| means for tightening.'up. the provisions of tho.law in regard to the salo of poisons; and one enacting a better method of subdividing land than at obtains at present. It is also likely that tho Cinematograph Films Bill, which seeks to encourage tho showing of British-made films, "will bo gone on with this year. It will be -recalled that- this Bill was of subdividing land than obtains attempt was made to pass it as it was do-1 sired to await tho results of tho pas-, sago of a similar measure in tho British Parliament. This week it was reported in. the.cablegrams that tho British Act was working satisfactorily. There is some doubt as to whether the Petroleum Bill, which was brought in last session, will bo proceeded with this year, as there is understood to be much opposition to its provisions, which, inter alia, aro designed to regulate'the methods of winning oil in the Dominion. A hint- has been given that it mijrht be necessary to increase the petrol tax beyond 4d per gallon in order to provido sufficient funds for highway purposes, but it is not clear whether anything in -this direction will be done tMs year,. •■•'■' The Magistrate's ©om-ts Act-and its.

amendments are scheduled for consolidation, as'is also the law in regard'to education reserves, and public reservcs\ and domains. OTHER BILLS. There, will be an amendment of tlie Municipal Corporations Act, giving effect to certain of tho resolutions passed at the last Municipal Conference, and it is intended to pass an amendment of the Shops and Offices Act forbidding the sale of plants and seeds by fruiterers. It is also possiblo that something may be heard of Bills dealing with tho-registration of musicians and opticians. For some time past endeav- . ours havo been made to hi^ve something done in regard to both these professions, but for one reason or another the matters have not been gone on with.. Two questions which it was expected would come before .Parliament this year were those of workers' compensation and amendments to tlie Apprentices Act.. An official report is in tho hands of the' Government with respect to tho operation of workers' compensation, laws in other countries, particularly on the American continent, and important recommendations were made by the recent National Industrial 'Conference, but it is understood that this matter will not bo tackled this session. Tho enforced absence abroad through illness of the Minister .of Labour (Mr. Anderson), who is most familiar with the existing law, is possibly the reason why action is being., deferred for the present. Mr. Anderson had intended to call a conference of interested parties in the recess for the . purpose of considering anomalies in- the apprenticeship law with a view of improving the Act, but as the'conference has not taken place this matter, too, will most likely be left over. - "' Parliament will be called upon to consider several Bills intended to improve the lot of the man on the land. It is intended to try to make'the Land Finance Act, which 'has been more or less a dead letter for many years, more flexible, and there may also bo a Land fc- Amendment, so that those requiring land may have easier facilities for-gotting it. It is also possiblo that there riiay be a Bill providing lor the dehorning of- cattle, also, a measure containing various amendments to the Rabbit "Act, tho ' object being to strengthen the hands of tho various rabbit boards in the .work they are doing. The National: Industrial Conference failed to agree regarding amendments to tho Arbitration "Act; but, no doubt, pressure will again be brought to boar on the Government to introduce- another Bill ' somewhat on tlie lines of last year's proposals. Whether tho Government will-respond in this fashion remains to be seen. Some of the 'members of the Reform Party would like to sco such a Bill passed, but if any effort in. this direction is made it seems safe to predict that the atmosphere of goodwill said to have been 'created by the Industrial Conference will speedily bo t dissipated. Various recommendations' wero made by the conference with respect to improvements to tho Labour laws, but at the time of writing it has not been decided what shally be done with regard to them, and the Government may present the report of the conference' to Parliament before taking-further action. '. , • A Bill will be introduced empowering the. Government.to make a gift to Canterbury-of the Provincial Couricil Chamber at Christchurch to mark the occasion of the jubilee ' of ' Canterbury. . . , ANGLICAN CHURCH BILL. Besides Government and local legislation, Parliament will be asked to consider a Bill promoted by the Chureli of England to. criablo tho church to make certain alterations to its .constitution and formularies, including the Book of Common Prayer, and to permit the use in public worship of a version other than the Authorised Version of tho Bible. Tho promotion of such a Bill was agreed to at -the last General Synod held in Wellington this year. Taking a general survey, the session may be expected' to bo equally as interesting as was that of last year in its concluding stages, but the near approach of the General Election will en-> sure a much shorter stay of legislators in Wellington than was the case, in 1927, when over a period of fivo months they tried to break all past records for a more or less praiseworthy combination of loquacity and hard woi'k, and just about succeeded.