POLITICAL NOTES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9855, 24 July 1914, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

THE PALMBRSTON SEAT. During the past few days rumours have been very rife thati Mr J. A. Nash intends* withdrawing from the contest for the Palmerston seat. Mit Nash states that he has no intention of withdrawing, and will go to the poll. He has already on a previous occasion given a similar rumour an emphatic denial. LEGISLATURE AMENDMENT BILL. (Br Tiugiafh.) (Fbok Out Fablumsntabi Asroatu.) WELLINGTON. July 25. Mr McCombs to-day obtained leave to introduce a Legislature Amendment Bill. It is practically a one-clause measure, iu object being the repeal of subsection 5 of section 105 of the Legislative Act, which reads, "Every nomination paper of a woman as a candidate shall be absolutely void, and of no effect, and shall be rejected by the returning officer without question." This, Mr McOombs points out, will bring New Zealand legislation into line, with ttie law in the Australian CommqawaalCb, which permits women to be nominated for the Henate. The repeal of the disability, ho adds, is a natural corollary to the granting of the franchise to vspmen. In Finland a number of women are members of the Legislative Assembly, and in Norway women have full political rights. In the United States women have mil political rights in several States, where they exercise full suffrage, the right to hold any State office, and even to be nominated for president. INDUSTRIAL AND TRADES UNIONS. Mr McOombs has introduced an Industrial Unions and Trade Union's Bill, which aims at bringing our industrial legislation into line with trie position in England, crested by the passing of the Trade Union* Act, 1913. which Act, he aays, virtually reversed the Osborne judgment, by permitting unions to use their funds for political purposes. The Osborne judgment, he adds, being a legal decision, constitutes a precedent which govern the Courts of New Zealand, while the Act in England, which relieves the workers of the effect of that decision and enables them to organise, has no force whatever in New Zealand. It is also sought in this Bill to. amend the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and the '*rat«s Union Act by forbidding registration of a second union in the same industry in the same locality, or industrial district where an industrial union or trades union already exists, to which the members oJ[ such industrial union or trade union might conveniently belong. The law now practically forbids the registration of a second trades union or a second industrial union, but as each Act deals with the one problem (the organisation of workers), the proposed amendment is merely a co-ordination of the two acts in this particular. A representative conference of natives from the Eastern Maori electorate selected if etekia te Kani Pere as the Reform candidate to oppose the Hon. A- T. Npata.— | Press Association.