IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13593, 13 May 1908, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

OLD AGE PENSIONS

THE HOME RULE ISSUE

Press Association-By Telegraph-Copyright LONDON, May 12. The Friendly Societies ask Mr Asquith, in awarding' pensions, not to take into account the income received from Friendly Societies or Trades Unions. The opponents of the scheme declare that if the ten shillings limit is> ignored for one form of thrift, it must be ignored for others, like the money .savings bank. Tlie Executive of the United Irish League has issued a manifesto condemning Catholics who support Unionist candidates in the interests of Catholic schools, thereby abandoning the cause of Ireland. DISTRESS IN KENT. MRS REEVES OX WOMAN SUFFRAGE. Ki.vivcd 9.55 p.m., May 12th. LONDON, May 12. - The House of Lords adopted Lord Addinglon's motion that the critical condition of the Kentish hop industry deserved the attention. The Archbishop of Canterbury said lie «■»:> aghast to hear the condition of the villagers. Lord Carrington admitted that the situation wa* Vfiy serious. The Government deeply with the sufferers, but were unable to entertain a duty on foreign hops. Lord Harm insisted that the hop industry must be ruined unless the Government intervened.

Lord Lansdowne agreed that it was desirable to await the report of the hop committee, but insisted that foreign com]>etition was the main cause of the trouble. Mrs Pember Reeves, wife of the New Zealand High Commissioner, addressed the Liberal Colonial Club on the educative influence and the working of woman .suffrage in Australasia, expressing the opinion that it had produced a good effect on family life, and had helped to broaden the political views of the people. Lord 1) u ilia in presided