THE BIG POW WOW

NZ Truth, Issue 881, 14 October 1922, Page 6

THE BIG POW WOW

Pertineat and Impertinent Palaver END OF THE SESSION IN SIGHT. TIME CLOSETH ALL THINGS. Having pinched Private Members' Day, -authorised itself to take new business after midnight, and, collared Mondays from the busy housewife, to assist at the weekly washing, the House shows every sign that it has at last tumbled to the fact that there is an election approaching land' that it is up to the tortoise of toil to. get busy if it wishes to beat the hare of happy indolence to the pole. "Truth" has had little to say anent the doings at the daily tangi for some weeks past, because a review of them was but a beating of the air and a dabbling of its toes m the mud of much slow-flow-ing streams of sluggish sophistry and sycophantic speech. For weeks andweeks and weeks the big pow-wows have pow- wowed drearily along, and the sum total of their record is as a grain of sand on the desert or a drop of water m 'the ocean. Frankly, they have simply sparred for time, and practically everything of any moment to the people— rsave matters of immediate "must" — has .'been adjourned till next session. This has been a characteristic of previous but never m such an aggravated and impudent form as has attached to the proceedings of the present grave and reverend seigneurs. However, the end of the. session is at hand, and it is not straining optimism to /hope that the end of it will 'be "quietness at last,',' and that when Parliament again assembles we may reasonably look for the work of the country- -being practically undertaken by a body of men who have a. platform to offer the public, m- place of the "platform of no-platform," which seems to be the common property at present of all sides of the House. Let it rest at that, for the country, is heartily sick of plenty .of promises and paucity of performances. ,-The sooner the whole crowd, get out into the country and sing their political anthem 'of "That's* how we diddle 'em, diddle 'em, , diddle 'em," the better pleased the J electors will be to have an opportunity of asking many scared rabbits "Whaffor?" THE UNFINISHED PROGRAMME. s The session started out -with a brilliant fanfare of trumpets ■: anent the work the Reform Government intended to do during the session which lies now on its deathbed, dying of sheer inanition. But the sound of the trumpets has sunk to a whistling below Bill's breath, and he is at present engaged m conducting an orchestra that;. cannot make as much 'music as a toothcomb and a bit of tissue paper. But he bears himself nobly, and is going down fighting, for he has promised the House about twenty more new Bills of his own fatherhood and nomenclature during the next two or three weeks. I'his absurdity requires no discussion. Already many of the innocents are earmarked /for massacre before, even their very birth, whilst so far as private members', measures are concerned they may 'just as well emulate the example of Ugalino and eat their children, lest a worse thing befall them. AYe shall see no more important legislation this session, and unless there is something to be attended to that is absolutely statutorily necessary the Prime Minister might just as well diminish the already attentuated pagesof the Statute Book and cease from shoving more fodder down the throat of that bloated Strasburg goose -known as Hansard. Let him adjourn Parliament at once and give the intelligent electors a chance to discuss the position of the country. MOMENTOUS MEASURES. 1 The back end- of last week was spent discussing — one uses the word grudgingly but charitably— the * vital " subject of the amusement tax, which • is apparently to be confined mainly to the cities, whilst Bill's farmers walk m with free passes at the "buckshee" door. Also William, m search of votes, announced that m order to ease the country money market, he had arranged for 4%* per centr . War Loan debentures to be accepted at their market value m payment of land tax and income tax, thus "bulling" the tax-free debenture some hot old way m the interests of his particular clientele. Then the House discussed compensation for a while, over the bones of the Workers' Compensation Amendment Bill Sis returned with amendments from the Labor Bills Committee. They reduced the subject ultimately to the very obvious conclusion that there was a clash of "community interest" between "employers who can't afford to pay more , compensation and of - workers who can't afford to do without more?' Oh, wisdom of a goose and gander yard of Solomons! Also, there was .a- wee bit of freehold v. leasehold tenure argument over the Land Laws Amendment Bill, during which our George of Riccarton admitted that some part of the national endowment might with advantage be converted into freehold. ;Ca' canny, George. He that i& not with us is against us. THE END OF THE ESTIMATES. The week saw the end of the Estimates, m discussing which everybody wanted a bit off his neighbour's plate and' objected strorigly to v ' anybody filching from his. However, "ship after ship the whole night long" the Armada of adventurers advancedMinister after Minister, fortified by the support of departmental officers, took charge at the front and staunchly met the measured attack. They were showered- with the shrapnel of 'con- , testing systems, bombarded with blackberries, electrocuted with elec r toral rolls, sabotaged with State farms, riddled with rabbits, tormented by tourists, excoriated with experimental farms, and after spending a little sum of £16,000,000 on p*aper the barrage drifted into tbin air. SOME MORE SAMOA. The first filched Monday was devoted to a discussion of, Safnoan affairs — just . by way, of course, of getting on with practical politics— but nothing much happened-, and the ukulele and the hula hula will not be smoked out of their dens by Plume oil or drowned m the kava kava of political expediency m the meantime. Indentured labor got a rotten hearing, a motion to abolish it being tossed into the discard by 27 votes to 9, the House, being itself a primary (presentation of the virtues of indentured labor, casting a singularly solid sympathetic vote for its co-indentured toilers m the Lord's vineyard. BILL'S BILLS. Tuesday saw the tenth of the tenth month tossed gently into the waste paper basket, after the House had had a diffident talk about deer, as a change from ' the • usual menu of bugs and. rabbits and opossums andth'e disappearance of Pelorus Jack. Even the ranks of Liber-Lab, could scarce forbear to cheer when the Government brought down a further instalment o£ four Bills (not including Bill), making a total of ten for th§ first two days of. the week. They were just Bills — dealing with crimes, cemeteries, the dairy industry and the land laws, a melange of no • particular interest at this period of the session, further than that they embodied certain provisions that^are a long way from becoming law Tjut may be. of value as ground bait for the Government at election .time. Then members got busy on hydro-electricity, the only point of real interest evolved being the übiquitous Dr. Thacker's "offer to buy the Lake Coleridge scheme right out if the Government would sell at cost price. But Bill wasn't parting with one of his pet, and profitable pups, and declined to name an". upset for the scheme. Thereafter the House ■issed six Bills, just to show what it could do m the way of jettisoning cargo as the tortuous rapids of election time roared nearer.

TAXATION. Wednesday Vas not a particularly bright day, for members got busy with a lot of fool questions about chicken feed and wild swans and fencing iron and other domestic requirements and cut out an hour 01 two over these momentous matters before tackling the Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill, which proposes to lift the supertax from incomes and reduce the Land Tax to 10 per cent., at a cost of nearly £1,000,000 to 1 a country which appears to have money to burn. Members talked away anent the need for taxation reduction, but nobody seemed to have the faintest idea of how it was to be reduced without further taxation to meet the falling revenue due to reduced taxation. However, they stayed by Bill and 'the Bill and the Gordian knot was still uncut when the second reading was carried. THE HOMES WE LIVE IN. A lively debate was precipitated on Thursday when Labor Fraser introduced his Housing Amendment Bill. The talk centred mainly around the shortage of houses throughout the country and was intended as an expression of protest at the Government declining to renew ihe rent restriction and tenants' protection laws when they expire at the end of this year. However, the protest was futile, for the party behind the measure failed to shake the Ministerial conviction that the renewal of the restrictions would mean that private enterprise would be stifled, and that capital would refuse to find money for house building for . letting purposes if the restrictions were, coiitinued. WORKERS' COMPENSATION. The Workers'. Compensation Bill reached Committee stage before the House rose on Thursday night, but it was practically unaltered, the Minister stating firmly that he had gone quite as far as he was prepared to go m ■ the matter .oi adjusting compensation. If there were further improvements necessary they would "have to -wait, and after giving this assurance he locked the measure up m the meat safe m the • Committee Room, leaving the joint to be re-hashed at the next sitting ofuhe House.