POLITICAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 1, 17 August 1911, Page 4

POLITICAL.

NOTES BY THE WAY. The pea-rifle is mentioned in a question wtiich is to bo addressed by Mr .Jennings to the Minister for Internal Affairs. The questioner asks that the sale of this weapon to persons under fifteen years of age snail oe absolutely prohibited. Mr Arnold is to ask the Minister .or Internal Affairs whether he will give the Electoral Department instruc lions to inform electors in those city electorates which have been altered oy 1 110 .Representation Commissioners of the name of the electorate to which they have been transferred. -Jr Jennings is urging the Minister for Public Works to adopt a system, under which every Government contractor, before a progress payment is made, will bo required to sign a declaration showing that no wages are clue to workmen in connection with the contract, in the event of wages being duo a portion of the progress payment to be retained to cover the claim.

' Fir A. li. G uinness has been impressed by the desire of the State school teachers for a light of appeal in case of transfers, and he has accordingly given notice to ask the Minister for Education whether he m ill favourably consider the desirableness of amending the Education Act with that object. The last amendment of the Licensing Act provided for the registration of barmaids. Only those who registered within a certain, period will he entitled to continue in that occupation. Parliament has now been petitioned by a Westland woman who worked in an hotel up to December, iPJ9, when she left to learn dressmaking. She applied to bo registered in May, 1911, but was refused because she had not been employed for throe months on licensed premises during the year ending November 21, 1910.

Mr. Davcy’s amendment of the Municipal Corporations Act is designed to abolish the present method by which Councils elect a successor to any Mayor who may die or leave his seat before the expiration of his term of office, and provide for an election by the people in every case. The Bill provides that the resignation, death, ousting, or incapacity of a Mayor shall create an extraordinary vacancy, provided that if a vacancy occurs within three months of the day fixed for' the biennial election of Councillors if shall not he necessary to fill the vacancy until that day. and that in tho meantime the Council shall elect as Mayor one of their number, who shall not vacate his seat as Councillor. If the vacancy Occurs within throe months of tho day fixed for the annual mayoral election in a year when there is no election of Councillors, the vacancy shall be filled by an election there and then, and it shall not ho necessary to hold the annual election, as the Mayor shall hold office for the whole term.