WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 October 1919, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

WOMEN'S RIGHTS'. BILL REJECTED BY COUNCIL. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, October 24. The faint praise with which Sir Francis Bell moved the second reading of the Women's Parliamentary Rights Bill in the Legislative Council yesterday, if it, did not exactly damn the measure, encouraged many of its hesitating opponents to vote against it. Of course the leader of the Council followI ed quite the orthodox course in mak- | ing a judicial analysis of the Bill, siting the pros and cons with an adm,,:,b'e assumption of impartiality, but it was obvious enough before he had proceeded very far that hi? heart was not in his task and that his sympathies lay rather with the majority, which contended, in effect, that what was good for the representative goes? might be very bad for the nominated gander. The women found eloquent and logical champions in the Hon. George Jones and the Hon. J. T. Paul, but the weight of nominated opinion was against them, and the Bill was rejected by eighteen votes to eight. THE ELECTIVE COUNCIL. A very important and significant ! statement concerning this subject was I made by the Prime .Minister' in the | course of his reply to a deputation from I somen's organisations throughout the j Dominion which waited upon him in | support of the Women's Parliamentary flights Bill yesterday almost at the very moment that the measure was being slaughtered by the "Lords." His own opinion was, he said, that the Bill making the Council electee, would come into operation next year, but it must first come before the House, and he thought the Bill might be amended by Parliament. It still would remain an elective Bill, but it was just possible—for the feeling was growing in this direction—that provison would be made for the nomination of a certain proportion of the members. Mr. Massey evidently j is preparing for a modification of the I measure. A wholly elective Council j which would deprive the House of the. means it at present possesses of asserting its supremacy inevitably would lead to an agitation for the abolition i of the Second Chamber and that is a ' development the Prime Minister and his colleagues are anxious to avoid. CLOSE OF SESSION. In reply to the leader of the Opposition, Mr Massey stated yesterday that he hoped to close the session on Saturday week. "I shall be very glad when the session comes to an end,"' he added, ''not because there has been anv unpleasantness, but bpcf.«ise the work has been much more strenuous than usual, I don't think we can finish before Saturday week, but T expects to close down then." As a matter of fact the session has been exceptionally free from the disagreeable incidents which help in making the lot of a 'Minister disagreeable. This is nil the more creditable to the House from.the fact that it was called together in extremely trying circumstances and under conditions that might bare made for much bickering and bitterness. Members on both,sides, with very rare exceptions, have done their best to facilitate business and probably never hefore has a season been so free from obstructive talk. IMMIGRATION. The Dominion this morning takes the Minister of Public Works severely to task for not propounding a comprehensive immigration policy. "Over and over again/' it says, "Sir William Fraser has emphassed the fact that the slow progress of essential public works is due to a shortage of labor. The shortage is admitted and indisputable; and it is admtited also 'by all who have addressed themselves seriously to the question that the only remedy is to be found in immigration. The extraordinary thing is that the Government has been content to go so far without definitely laying down the lines of an orderly immigration policy to be brought into operation as soon as conditions will permit." The truth of the ■matter is that members of the Cabinet are sharply divided onthis question of immigration, and as a whole are disposed to postpone the problem to a more convenient season.