THE SESSION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13317, 20 June 1907, Page 4

THE SESSION.

Out 1 Wellington correspondent docs not- add a great deal to what was already anticipated as the parliamentary programme ■for the approaching session, but his summary <>f the business which Ministers intend to submit to the Hf-m.se indicates that members will have to settle down at once to steady work if .th*y are to get througli ■a fair share of the- order paper in store for them. It appears that there Avill ba no excuse for ' dilly-dallying during .he first three or four months of 'the st-ssiou, as used to l>a the invariable custom for a long stretch of years. The important Bills Unit* are to be brought down aresaid to be in a. forward isl.'iU- of preparation, while the departmental reports on which members are largely dependent it they are to take an intelligent p;ut in the debates of the House, are also .said to be well advanced 1 . In this latter respect at all events, the Ward Ministry has already proved itself the superior of its predecessor, though there is no great- merit iu such an elementary administrative virtue as the prompt preparation of routine reports and their production at a reasonably early .stage of the session. We imagine, however," that there will be little deposition to quarrel over such comparative trivialities as depart mental reports when the Government pi'imos-o to furnish Bills on such contentious mattt'isv.s the land, the turill', and the labour question. In regard to the latter, we may take it as practically beyond doubt- that the Arbitration Act will be amended so a's to remove: the uncertainty respecting tihe penalties to which participants in a> strike* 'expos-? themselves. We. are given no indication of the diree-. tions in which the Hon, J, A, Millar pioi

poses to interfere with the existing tariff, but we 'Lave ntfvvr ceasul to preach tha doctrine that with the great burden''of indirect taxation ia this country-New Zealand being the most heavily taxed of .the Australasian columns in this resp:ct~and with the enormous surplus which is annually declared by the- Colonial Treasurer, there- is rt»om for remissions which would make the struggle for existence it littla less severe than many a wage-earner now rinds it. Our correspondent gives_ us littlo that i'* new about Mr MeN.ti/s hind proposals which are now to be embodied in u trinity of Bills, but there is an ceho of the Government's fatal weakness in the- statement that the graduated tax to be employed for limitation of esini.es is an attempt to "meet- tho wishes of »•! contending parties." Unless Mr McNub can persuade himself antV his f«» faca opposition in a, iirore resolute spit it than they have shown in the par., we shall be very much surprised >f the 01 d of the session leaves them with mneh "f a record beyond the strewn i-jrpsos of rejected or abandoned 13ills.