IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2727, 20 June 1906, Page 19

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

LONDON, June 13.

. IXnring the discussion on the Education Bill. Mir Birrell' (Secretary for Education) offered to make an amendment to enable the volnntary schools to appeal to the Board of Education against the refusal of the local authority to take over the schools.

Mr Redmond hailed the concession with gratitude, and trusted that it would be the forerunner of other modifications, enabling the Nationalists to do what they were mo3t anxious to do — viz., join the Nonconformists in passing a measure which, while safeguarding the Catholic schools, would remove the injustices inflicted on the Nonconformists.

The debate has been suspended until Monday, when a guillotine resolution will be introduced to enable the remaining clauses and stages to be finished.

The House will adjourn on August 10, and will reassemble for the autumn session in October, proroguing in December.

The Times states that Mr Redmond's attitude is useful, as showing the Unionists how doubtful and precarious any support they may reckon on in that quarter will be.

The Duke of Devonshire, in the course of an address to the Unionist Freetrade Club, said that although Freetrade was "safe for the present, " £he Unionist party •was in nowise 6afe, inasmuch as the policy of tariff reform exposed ite serious internal <lan£er. Mr< Chamberlain's proscription of all differing from him was the most audacious thing ever advanced, and Mr Jtalfpur had not yet stated whether be accepted Mr' Chamberlain's -version of the concordat. Mr Chamberlain had predicted a general election in 1907, after the Education Bill was rejected. By whom was it to be rejected? The Opposition in the House of Commons was powerless to reject, therefore it could only be done by the House of Lords. The Opposition was resisting the bill and the attempts taken to amend it, but it had better confine itself to comment, and allow the Lords to mind their own business. Tne Lords would do well to keep their own counsel, and not to announce th«ir intentions -until they saw the bill. If the House of Lords neglected or wrecked the bill they might precipitate an .election on the threefold issue of religious questions in schools, the constitutional rights of the Lords, and the constructive fiscal policy which the Tariffists appended to the other principles of the party. He incidentally warned the Opposition that it was nowise certain that the bill was so unpopular in the country as some Unionists imagined, now that Freetrade was no longer in danger.

Lord James of Hereford said the House of Lords would not be wise if it opposed the expressed wish of the electorates, and it would be still worse if it put the spiritual peers in the van of the battle.

Lord Balfour of Burleigh said the duty of the Lords was to distinguish between a settled policy and the passing whim of the constituencies.

June 14.

The Budget Bill was read a third time, and the Labourers (Ireland) Bill a second time, in the House of Commons.

Fifty Radical members of the House have memorialised Sir H. CampbellBannerman to devote a day to the Chinese question, and to placard a new and effective repatriation notice, so as to terminate the system as far as posible.

The House of Commons, in committee, is considering the Workmen's Compensation Bill. By a narrow majority it accepted Mr J. C. Wedgwood's (L.) amendment empowering the Home Secretary to compel industrial employers to insure the workmen in any approved mutual trade insurance scheme.

Mr A. Lyttelton, ex-Colonial Secretary, in an address to the St. George's electors, dealt with the education question, the need for a wider basis of taxation, and coherent measures £or- the defence of British industries, instead of the system drift, misnamed Freetrade. He acknowledged that Lord Elgin's views, backed by knowledge, good sense, .and good feeling, were gaining ground, and promised the withdrawal of colonial affairs from the realm of party politics.

Mr M. C. Mallik (Liberal), who contested the seat at the recent general election, will oppose Mr Lyttelton for the St. George's, Hanover square, seat.

The Archbishop of York, in reply to the laymen's memorial, declared thai

while from the outset he was keenly conscious of the serious defects of the Education Bill, he felt that the wisest course was- to seek its amendment rather than its \ destruction. He had hopes that this was ' yet possible. Dr Clifford, in the course of an address, said that he would rather pass the Education Bill with its objectionable fourth clause than risk a general election i and a possible change of Government. June 15. Mr Herbert Gladstone has again been defeated owing to the Opposition declining to exclude compensation for shop assistants where the number employed did not exceed three. Owing to the death of Miss Lily Cove, parachutist, Mr Gladstone is introducing i a bill to extend the Dangerous Perform1 ances Act to all women. In the House of Commons Sir E. Grey, in reply to Mr Wedgwood, stated :—: — "We recognise the Congo Free State's independence, and our rights of intervention consist of seeing that the treaty obligations are observed. These cannot be affected by subsequent declaration on the part of a Sovereign, and King Leopold's letter against the power of intervention cannot alter them. A bill abolishing the property qualification for county magistrates has been read a second time in the House of Lords without a division. The guillotine resolution proposes 16 days for the committee and report stages of the Education Bill, with an additional day for the third reading. June 16. The House of Lords has received reports on the Amendments to the Colonial Marriages Bill, and Lord Halsbury has intimated that he will no longer oppose the bill. Mr Lyttelton was returned unopposed for the St. George (Hanover square) seat. Mr Balfour has given notice in the House of Commons of an amendment protesting against the application of the guillotine in compartments to the Education Bill on the ground that it is unjust to unduly limit so important a discussion. An uproar was created at a Liberal meeting at Northampton. The women suffragists from the balcony waved flags and shouted " Votes for the women ! " but after a violent scuffle they were ejected. Mr Asquith then staled that he feared that the Government would be compelled to drop for the present the second part of the Education Bill, though it was urgently needed in the interests of secondary schools. The police prevented the suffragists from mobbing Mr Asquith when he was leaving the building.