The Hawera Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1926. THE SESSION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 19 June 1926, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1926. THE SESSION.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera. Manilla, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Obangai, Meremere, Prater Road and Ararat®.

Although longer than it. sometimes has been, the Governor-General’s speech at the opening of Parliament on Thursday was no more informative as regards the legislative proposals of the Government, and the country will have to wait for the preliminary skirmishes of the session to be completed before it can form an estimate of the quantity and value of the work before Parliament. The point is made that the session has opened at an earlier date than usual in order to facilitate the attendance of the Prime Minister at the Imperial Conference; but it is very doubtful if the one week added at this end will enable Parliament to get through its business by the first or second week in September, and the Prime Minister may have to sail with the -House still in session. That will be for him to say. He may elect to curtail the sessional programme to suit, and, with so powerful a majority, ho ought to be able to keep the legislative machinery moving rather more briskly than has been possible for some years past; but, in the ordinary course of events, a session of ten or twelve weeks would be insufficient to handle the business which the electorate will expect of Parliament this year. For instance, there is talk of licensing legislation. Some amendment of the existing law has been promised for long enough, but if the House is charged with the responsibility of saying how far amendment shall go, spirited, debates and long sittings cannot be avoided. Then, again, it seems that the Government has on its programme something in the way of a family pension, and novel legislation of this typo is not passed without full and detailed discussion. There is, of course, no reason why Mr Coates should not leave the House sitting. In Mr Downie Stewart he has a lieutenant well qualified to take command, and there will be no worry about close divisions. But a Prime Minister naturally prefers to keep his finger on the pulse of Parliament, and an effort will doubtless be made, first of all to get down to business without any undue loss of- time, and then to keep moving steadily. In this way it should bo possible to clear off all the major Bills in ten weeks, perhaps leaving the odds and ends to be cleared up after the Prime Minister’s departure. In the meantime the House has done well in its election of Speaker, and the public has had broken to it the sad tidings that there is to be no relief in taxation, which, no doubt, is enough for the first half-week.