PARLIAMENT'S PROGRAMME FORECASTED.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13756, 23 June 1913, Page 4

PARLIAMENT'S PROGRAMME FORECASTED.

THE FATE-OF TARIFF.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Wellington, Juno 21. Parliament is about to commence what has long been recognised under the triennial system as the working session of its brief existence. Old hands in tho lobby say that the tirst session lifter an election is usuall}' . mostly a means of adjusting the now men (usually one-third of the whol* House) to their strungo environment, while tiie third session finds members doing their work, anxious about what is going on among their rivals in tho constituencies, and concerned only tv get through their legislative duties qujckly wich the minimum of trouble j, so tin© middle session is the eifective one, always the longest, and this time, 1 predict, destined to be clos€< on a record for duration. Two important elements will make for the lengthening, the first being the Government's anxiety to put a fairly long list of enact-. ments on vhc Statute Book. This is the Massey Government's first-real opportunity, and if they miss it thero will bo little electioneering value to them from measures, however excellent, passed in the pre-election session. On th* other hand, wo tind an Opposition numerically far stronger than the New Zealand .Parliament has been used to for ! many years, and it is. not an extremostatement to say that the new regim© has given its opponents a fair amount lof material tor effective- criticism on the floor of the House. Possibly there [ will not be serious opposition to morethan haif the Government'© legislative programme, but tho talking opportunities for a live Opposition will bo toogood to be missed.