Lively Topics

Evening Star, Issue 19329, 16 August 1926, Page 4

Lively Topics

JELI6IGUS EXERCISES AMD GAfK DAYLIGHT SAVING PROSPECTS r F»OM Our Parliamentary Reporter .] WELLINGTON, August 14. ■ The Legislative Council failed to complete the third reading debate on the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill on Friday night, many of the members believing that the long speeches of the Bill’s opponents would keep them up all night. A division on a motion to adjourn at 11 p.ra. was carried on the casting vote of Mr Speaker, the voting being an equal ten. This represented the exact state of opinion on the measure at the moment, for, had the third reading motion been put to the division at that stage, a number of members being asbent, there would have been a tie. The discussion will l>e continued on Tuesday, when, with a full muster of councillors, the Bill will bo passed. It then has to undergo the ordeal of discussion in the House of Representatives, where a peculiar position is said to be developing. Supporters of religious exercises in schools are confident that a majority of Lower House members are plcdgecUto vote for the Bill. Candidates were carefully canvassed during the election campaign, and this is the reported result, though Government supporters are in a large majority pledged also to a Government platform, which declares for the maintenance of New Zealand’s free, secular, and compulsory system of education. How private pledges will bo reconciled with* party undertakings has yet to be seen. Tho complication may conveniently bo resolved by_ the old parliamentary method of avoiding the problem altogether as the end of the session is rapidly approaching. Many other highly controversial measures on tho official list have yet to lie dealt with, and the Exorcises in Schools Bill, as a private measure, will have to take a chance of a day being available for its consideration. This rests with the Government, which may not care to sacrifice some of its own measures for the sake of another offerings so awkward a decision to many of its own supporters. Tho Gaming Amendment Bill, proiding for the publication of dividends and the institution of a double tolalisator, has passed the Legislative Council, and is set down for second rending in the House at the first convenient dole. This is also a private measure, and is in charge of Sir George Hunter. The Bill is likcjy to arouse a storm of debate, and if its opponents can show their capacity to delay proceedings effectively, it will be one' of tho “slaughtered innocents” of the session. A careful survey of the prospects of the Summertime Bill in the Legislative Council discloses the fact that Daylight Saving, after several revor'ses' in that chamber, has a chance of scraping through. Some councillors formerly in opposition are now impressed bv the fact that the House .rare the Bill a fairly large majority Jnd that it only provides for one trial of four months, after which the experiment will automatically cease unless further legislation is passed, the Select Committee which took evidence on the men sure will report to the TjCffislntivo Council during the corning week, and the second reading discussion is likely to take place on \\cdnCflieyHon. John Barr (Christchurch) is in charge of tho Bill.