POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8288, 17 September 1903, Page 1

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

By -Telegraph.

(From our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, September 16. Tlia sacred right of question got a clear field in the afternoon, and the House behaved in the most exemplary fashion. The resu-lt was not anything to boast about;, but we had information about the Land Bill. Mr Duncan again said that, the Land Bill would appear this week, and as he didn't have any Bill to put over the- stile everybody believed that- the Bill would be, brought down. The evening was devoted to_ the Shipping and Seamen's Bill in Committee, but the main interest is not in tho House just now, it centres in the caucus of the •Government, party called for eleven I o'clock to-morrow. It has now become evident that, unless some change is made in the methods, or programme, the, session, can't possibly end this side of Christ-mas. The caucus is called for the purpose "of devising the way out of the difficulty. It is understood that the object is to arrange, if possible, for the session to be clewed up in three weeks, and that something in that direction will be done is the opinion of all old Parliamentarians. Nobody thinks that the-end can come in three weeks, but- fou-r or five are thought to -be feasible enough. Whatever may bo done it is pretty generally understood that there will be a clean sweep of the programme, and that licensing will not be in it-. The temperance people did not, it is now remembered, ask for anytiling that can't be arranged by amending the Electorud Act. and t-he Regulation of Local Elections Act; the Trade on the other hand asked for too much for the House to look at, at this late period, in a licensing measure.

The Privilege Committee did not sit today, and will not sit again till Friday (tomorrow). All the Committees have been released from duty on account of the. Government caucus.

[ With_ regard to the Trade Monopolies Prevention Bill circulated yesterday by the Government to all the Press of the colony, the opinion on all sides seems to be that it, is a drastic measure constructed on very fair lines, and is not unlikely to effect the desired result. It should mean, say, that the collapse of the great Morgan Shipping 'Combine has proved the truth of the man who tries to grasp too much ending by holding nothing, in other words that no measure is required to procure the collapse of institutions that, m the nature of things must break down under their own/ weight. The provision most admired in the measure is the definition of "reasonable trade coropeci-t-ion," which makes easy the hitherto impossible task of defining trade monopoly by simply calling it,anything that prevents reasonable competition. The provision that there must, be a preliminary investigation for a prima facie case by the Solicitor-Gene-ral and Auditor-General Js approved as a bulwark against vexatious*prosecutions, and the placing of the,' decision, in the hands of the Chief Justice and two Judges finds much favor. For all that the opinion is largely held that the measure- will do most of its good by its presence/ on the Statute Book, rather than by any active- application, just as an armed force -prevents burglars from cracking cribs. The that the measure ought to be applied to monopolies of labor as well as. of capital, and tho idea is considered good'enough..