BRITISH POLITICS.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1600, 6 February 1906, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

LONDON, Feb. 2. Mr Augustine Curdl, President of the Board of Induce lion, speaking at Bristol, said !hat ior some months to come he will be immersed in the details of the Education Bill. It has already wholly absorbed his thoughts, which have been turned into no other channel than those connected with this great reform. He hoped for a happy and prayed that Christianity, which all were so anxious to im-< part to the workers' children, wouhji not disappear entirely from the dQ bates in the House of Commons, bul that a spirit of forbearance would exhibited by all whatever standpoint was Taken.

The Times remarks that Mr P.irrell has already discovered that the subject is not nearly so easy as it looked lo Mr Balfour's gay and irresponsible critics. There are already ominous warnings of a potential storm, which nowise always owe their origin to the malignant spirits of Opposition.

Messrs Hardie and Barnes visit the Irish League olDces in Dublin and intend to study the Irish labor problems and devote special attention to the condition of the West of Ireland. The Standard reports that it understands Messrs Mac Donald, Crooks, Shackleton, Arthur Henderson, and Keir Hardie, Labor representatives, will sail for the colonies in August, and be absent a year and a-half. The Local Government Board declines to sanction the Lambeth Board of Guardians' scheme for a farm colony at Basing-Stoke, in Hampshire, considering it too experimental. Feb. 3. The Daily IS'ews Kays there is a strong prospect, that the Liberals will contest the City seat against Mr Balfour. Mr Balfour and Mr Chamberlain dined together and discussed the Unionist party's future. The Standard says Mr Asjjiuith and Mr John ALorley, addressing a meeting, declared that Mr Chamberlain's proposals sought, to create a new bond of Imperial union, consisting of a network oi fiscal cobwebs, while the Liberal i'deal implied self-govern-ment and self-development in fiscal and all other matters. They were confident that the early concession of full responsible self - government would gradually efface racial distinctions in South Africa, and would result in the combination and concentration of the common interests of the community to which Boer and Briton belonged. The Standard says if Mi' Balfour accepts a general tariff as part of the I'nionist policy it will be possible to reunite the party on a constructive basis, but, harmony depends on Mr Balfour's willingness to advance. Feb. <l. There is evidence of extreme tension between the larili reformers and Baliourit.es as the outcome of uncertainty as to their relative strength in the I Louses of Parliament and in the country. There is a heated discussion in the daily and weekly newspapers concerning the leadership, the Ohamberlainiles threatening to decline to answer party whips. Mr W. 11. Long is suggested as a possible leader. The Duke of Devonshire proposes to form a third party in the House of Lords, consisting ol Unionist Free Trade peers.