SEDITION BILL.

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 October 1918, Page 5

SEDITION BILL.

PASSES THE ASSEMBLY (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) Received This Day. 10.10 a,m. SYDNEY, This Day. The Assembly passed the Sedition Bill. Speaking to the motion for leave to introduce a Sedition Bill in the Legislative Assembly on August 28, the" Premier (Mr. Holman) spoke for an hour. There was continuous hostile interruption- Mr, Holman said

that the Bill proposed no change in any way concerning the law of sedi tion. It created no new offence, and the present definition of sedition would remain unaltered. It was not a. Bill directed against public activities or any political party, or section. It was laid down that any person convicted of an offence enumerated in the schedule should be disqualified from being nominated a*> a candidate or from voting, or b - ins: elected as a member of Parliament or on a municipal council. That could only apply to offences eomitted after the passing of the Bill. Any person who was a member of Parliament or of a municipal council and was convicted of an offence should vacate his seat, and be incapable of being nominated or elected. The period of disqualification would extend from not less than four years to seven years. The law would have no effect upon Federal elections, and would operate for the period of the war and six monthsi afterwards, when it would automatically cease to operate. The object of the measure wa,s to check the disloyalist and sedition-monger. Its purpose was not to attack a strike leader, political leader, or the leader of a, class in any action taken against another class. The Government had excepted a class of offence which was undoubtedly a seditiousoffence but was a class of offence which was not connected specifically and inherently with the prosecution of the war. Persons were entitled to express their opinions in favoui of peace. Mr. Holinan further explained that anyone found guilty of writing seditious words was included in the schedule. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Storey) said that the Bill was panic legislation. Had the Act been in force when the Boer War was raging Mr. Holman would never have been in Parliament, nor would he have been out of prison yet. Even in England no such legislation had been passed.