STUDENT POLITICS

Evening Star, Issue 22382, 4 July 1936, Page 20

STUDENT POLITICS

UNIVERSITY PARLIAMENT RISES CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECTS WARMLY DEBATED Highly controversial subjects of current political interest were discussed at the final session of the University Parliament last evening. The parties “ maintained with no little heat their various opinions,” and introduced many light-hearted ' asides into their arguments, but the form of parliamentary debates was generally followed and _ produced some interesting contentions. Mr Angus' Ross was Speaker for the evening. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. A bill providing for the abolition of the death sentence was introduced by Mr S. Burnett (Independent), who vigorously attacked the principle of capital punishment. He upheld the arguments of Voltaire, Thackeray, and Robespierre in their denunciation of the death penalty and went on to say that no country that abolished this penalty had recorded an increase in its homicide rate. In New Zealand there hatl been about 200 executions, and there was always a slight possibility that the jury had made a mistake, and that possibility could become a probability. Ou the grounds of Christianity there was no authority for the execution of any man. Mr J. Henderson (Government) added that some 30 countries had abolished the death sentence without showing increases in their homicide rates. He quoted a case as a cause celebre which had*heeu given a great deal of publicity. That publicity should have been a deterrent, but there were twice as many murders in the year that followed that execution as in the year that preceded it. Mr J. S. D. Moore (Leader of the Opposition) opposed the Bill _ and disputed the contention that Christian teachings did not give .authority for the death sentence. Capital punishment, he said, had always been —and always would, be—the most adequate deterrent to crime ever conceived. If it were abolished it would be necessary to keep people convicted of murder in prison and spend money that was unnecessary and unjustified. Miss R. M'Kenzie (Acting ‘Prime Minister) supported the Bill and advocated that corporal punishment in schools should be included in it.

An Opposition member _ touched on the question of murder trials, and advanced the opinion that the Press should be excluded from these, only the solicitors and the jury being admitted. A voice from the Communist benches: What about the prisoner? After a lengthy discussion, during which it was "suggested that murder should be treated as a social crime and that the perpetrator should be treated by psycho-analysis or by some similar method, it was decided to include in the Bill an amendment from the Opposition that publication of all proceed-

iligs at murder trials should be prohibited. During the committee, stages a Government amendment:—“That the death penalty be abolished for all offences under the jurisdiction of the Dominion” was carried. A brief discussion on the remaining clauses then followed, and after several amendments had been incorporated, the Bill ■was passed. QUESTION TIME. Question time saw the Acting Prime Minister subjected to a running fire of queries which covered every imaginable subject, ranging from the Government’s attitude towards television being applied to broadcasting from the House to whether it was proposed to countenance suicide. Some_ of these appeared to be answered satisfactorily, the replies to a few were drowned by interjections, while others were unanswerable. POLITICAL PRISONERS. The House heard a deputation which requested consideration of the treatment accorded to political 'prisoners in countries r :r Fascist rule. The speakers reici.ed to the hardships inflicted on political prisoners in Germany and Italy, and more particularly to the fact that many of these had been kept in prison without trial. After some discussion, a motion recording an emphatic protest by the House against the imprisonment of a political prisoner in Germany was carried. THE ARBITRATION ACT. A Bill providing for the amendment of the Arbiraiion and Conciliation Act was brought forward by the Acting Prime Minister. Speaking to the Bill, Miss M'Kenzie said that it was the most important so far brought before the House. Her party had, before drawing it up, consulted with various federations of employees and trade unions, and had designed it to give a fair deal to all employees. The Arbitration Court at present had all the dice loaded against the workers, and the Bill now being introduced aimed at securing for them shorter working hours, increased wages, and better working conditions. The Leader of the Communists (Mr H. Silverstone) condemned the Bill, which he considered illogical, incomprehensible, and legally imperfect. The speaker took particular exception to the clause dealing with the constitution of the Arbitration Court, which, he maintained, did away with one “ rotten ” court to replace it with another four times as bad.

Mr J. S. D. More (Opposition) also opposed the Bill, principally on the ground that it advocated the “ invidious and insidious ” principle of trade unionism. Miss M'Kenzie introduced a witness who defined the attitude of trade unions towards arbitration. After this witness had been heard the Bill was read for the second time, and the various clauses were considered at length in committee. As the hour was becoming late, considerable impatience began to manifest itself among the less serious-minded members of the House, and in the midst of constant and spirited outbursts of heckling and counting out, it

is doubtful if the movers themselves knew exactly what became of the majority of the amendments which wer» put. The f Bill, however, was passed* and.the House rose until next year.