IN THE HOUSE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12551, 12 July 1901, Page 6

IN THE HOUSE.

'<'■-'" [Fkok Oub Corhestonbbnt.l ";''• • WELLINGTON, July 11. ' The chief business of the afternoon was the-discussio.-i.oni the Bill,for compulsion ' drill in the schools of the colony. The various speakers, of whom there was no " iaok, took- great interest in the ''subject, but the Housia wag ratler thin, ranging throughout the 1 afternoon between twenty end thirty rnem- , bers.' The interestr once got to fever heat ''■Wfcea made an impassioned /denunciation Of militarism, accused, the Go- " vemment of Jingoism,- and hoped that the ■seople of this country had crossed the sea io get away from all the evils of the O.d ' World. To this tho Premier replied in one rf- the best speeches he has ever made, .wmrmly patriotic broadly national, prae•Jfcflil, and of a repressed force withal, which told eloquently of the sting of the unwort/hy insinuations hurled at him. The most- telling argument was " Who cleared tlie 'sea to enable'the pioneer to cress -('he Mi?"' He clinched it with th© statement .oft the universal belief that we must help tie Mother Country to keep it clear by being prepared to defend our own country ,wien necessary, and" supported it with " Where would; the country be without the thirteen million of exports?" These formed "in' themselves a temptation, to the foreign - nations which, in the absence of preparation on, our part, would be assuredly one - day fatal to our independence. The Em- , 'pire, ie said, could only stand by the co- " operation of its parts. Tho war had shown ■ the existence of a power unsuspected, and jt»„ events' had proved to foreign nations tJw great -difficulty of attacking the out- ,' lying nations, and he hoped that no New '-ZtWander would ever be backward in giv'jinj faelp'to'the Empire on occasions such as L 'hid -arisen in _ South Africa. The House applauded his' excellent summary of the ~ petition ami"the vigorous expression of his '' jentinients. He had said that he was but the mouthpiece of the people, and the re-.-presentatives of the people much approved . him." The rest of tho ground travelled over ;*M not as - new as it was apimated. We '■had *n associated* procession "defiling before n», the conscientious, objections of workers "to'military service jostling the cheap dei'ftnee of'nations, pro-Boer argument per- ■ Bleated by protests on. the heels of loyalty, oompulsion and. 1 liberalism in pair, and • when the objections to the military dTill- ; ing of " our daughters " came by they were Mr Monk, who assured the House in, a, fervid burst that " You can't have fame bjrds without game hens," which i wait. members to dinner as pleased as if ' they had been fasting forty-eight hours and t the repast was roast fowl. -', > After dinner drill and militarism kept '.poutaoxm-ior an hour and a half, and then . the Bill, which is really a measure for the p cheapest defence of the nation and the '. inost unobjectionable ever offered to a j\,«puntry, passed its second reading by a ,' large majority. < { Then we had'the Eight Hours Bill, with 3 Mcond reading, moved by the member for rj'JUccaxGon, w'ho was conciliatory and cogent f t»"'_hw'' strain. He gently reminded the I Premier 'that he recently met a deputation 'f«f ■ the Canterbury Trades Council, and '; pledged himself to the principle. j >'i'i>e Premier was not to be outdone in and conciliatoriness, neither olid be fear to stick to his guns. He accepted ,tke, principle, of course, as every true ■Liberal, must, adding that if Mr Russell L failed to carry his Bill (it is one which , Iwf often ha'dl a try), the Government would take it'up. It had been their intention to , Snake further provision -for the principle Jrom the first. Mr Russell had said that 1 fee l*d looked! in vain for an announcement ;in the Governor's speech making good his ,-arokawe to.the Trades and Labour Council, wit. it "was' then covered by the words "the labour measures." When he had got thus far the question arose: Would the Government make provision in their meAmaking the principle apply to the 1 Mjttfcres ,of, population alone. The grave " £*pJy .'" ra , 3 . that the request was not un fwaonabfe, and' that perhaps it might be i mdl, tjo have a schedule of districts 'in * which,the principle would be applied. f ' Thp flrsfc remark made in the lobbies 'was ■ thai the hatchet is buried between the Pref',j|ier.and his late, rather fierce critic, the ;>»«** that the Bill makes a line of demartM ' <i(m, 'between town and! country. The ~ •peaking carried that out fairly well, the town.members- going one way and the couni try members the other, all approving the principle but differing about exceptional fconditions, Mr Meredith and Mr Flatman, , for instance, seeing the impossibility of ap- , plying it to the country, and Messrs Col-' iina, Ell and others going baldheaded for 'town interests, and Mr Willis approving '-the need for it in towns with exceptional {rovinons for the country. So the Bill •ft going till midnight.