WELLING TON TOPICS.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 156, 4 July 1917, Page 6

WELLING TON TOPICS.

PARLIAMENT IN SESSION

THE SIGNS AND PORTENTS

(Special Correspondent). y ■ „ WELLINGTON, July 2. Tlie House of Representatives ■appears to have assembled in a particularly serious mood thfe year, eager to get to work and ready to dispense with any superfluous preliminaries that might interfere with the progress of business. What this attitude portends it is too early to say with any confidence, but the -teehng about the lobbies is that .(Members, irrespective of parties, are -going to be more critical and less ■ amenable to discipline than they have been in either of-the other two sessions since the beginning of ,th© war.-'-Of. course, the early attacks upon the- Minister for Defence by Mr Vigor Brown and Dr Thacker are •rather personal than symptomatic of the temper of the House, and need not be taken into serious accountout the session proceeds more weighty indictments will be levelled ;'agamst Sir James Allen and his colleagues. Already Members whose are specially interested 'in the butter-fat levy have met to upon the line of action they are to take to secure the removal of the impost and the refund of. the money chat has been T paid, while •quite a number oi questions more or less directly challenging the policy ■land administration of the National Government have been placed oil the •order-paper. • EARLY CLOSING. . The -advocates of closing the hotel bars at six o'clock during the course «t the war and for six months after weje early in the field with a huge *aten of petitions in support of their prayer, and it is understood that the Pile of papery lying en the table of tne House will be supplemented by manyjater arrivals. The report that the lYade is prepared to compromise • i.: , fluesfcion «™d would accept «ight o'clock closing is denied by people who ought to he acquainted with , the facts; but the representa{taves^of th.c petitioners profess to be^ confident ,frf, getting, a^ood deal more, this witho.ut maWrig any terms j withu <'th,etr taends the eriemv»':• -Precisely what ground there is 'for their optimism is noc yet clear, but it is known that, five or six Members who opposed the reduction of hours last session are now disposed to reconsider their position. One of these k a gentleman who put his whole trust in-'anti-shouting" and would iiot tolerate any further concession to the "reformers." How soon the .matter will be brought to a vote depends xipon the wishes of the iyabinet, which is said to-be anxiously weighing the strength of the two parties, but fche position cannot be greatly affected by delay, and probably Ministers will *be glad to get if off their minds. STRAWS, Though Members of Parliament Jiaye obviously come to Wellington brimming over with patriotic zeal and heroic resolutions, just at the moment they seem to be concerning themselves rather with small things' than with great. The talk of the week-end has centred not around the ■boan Bill or the taxation proposals, ■or any other measure, for winning the war, but around the Governor's new title and the special train that brought the party lenders from Auckland. The new honor conferred upon I his Majesty's representative in the j Dominion does not appear to have rgreatly impressed anyone, unless it is his Excellency himself, who made a very proper little speech at the ceremony on Friday, and *: the special I train has provoked many derisive ■comments, for which fche irrational •economics of the Minister of Railways are largely responsible. No doubt Sir Joseph Ward put the ! matter of flic title in the right light ' when he urged the importance the I increased status would give to New ! Zealand in the eyes of outsiders, and - if it costs the taxpayers nothing in

happened in the Dominion during the preceding nine or ten months, and would have had no hope of doing this had they travelled by the ordi-

nary train. But perhaps the public protest, which may find some echo in Parliament, may induce the party leaders to look more closely than they otherwise would have done infc<£ the -whole administration of the railway service during war time. If they tell the public that the measures adopted by.Mr Herries are necessary towards winning the war the public will be satisfied. If, however, they discover that these measures .are simply tlie expression of disgruntled officialism, the public will expect them to interfere.