AN EYE ON PARLIAMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12776, 21 October 1919, Page 7

AN EYE ON PARLIAMENT.

GOSSIP FROM THE GALLERY

IFnoy Op* Correspondent.]

WELLINGTON, October 20.

SCARCITY OF COLLIERS.

C , A ,?Pr^ 0W strike by tho Union otoara Snip Company was suggested by •u H ° <- Gre T) i n tlie. House tonight. There were a number of days last week when the railway trucks at Greymouth were full of coal., ho said, and the minors were unable to work because no trucks were available and no ship was there to empty the trucks. Did this, asked Nir Holland, indicate that the Union Company was running a go-slow strike on its own account, and what action did the Prime Minispropose to take? The Prime Minister said if .Mr Holland would give him particulars he would be very pleased to communicate with the Union Steam Ship Company, as he bad done on several occasions previously. There was a shortage at present of vessels suitable for carrying coal on the New Zealand const. A POLITICAL GOOSEBERRY. The Labour candidate for Manawatu, according to Sir William Fraser, is indebted to Mr W. H. Field, tho Reform inom'ocr for Otoki. Ivocontly this Laoour c*£inclidnt<! made a spooclx in which ho gave an account of the way in w!iich the Mangahoa scheme was being prosecuted. “We are getting near to election time," said Sir \Vilham Fraser in reply. "This is a big gooseberry," "A whatF" asked members in nutpnso.

i- ” A b ir'u- goospbf ' rry ''.' . sn id Sir William. this is tho political gooseberry season. The candidate should be much indented to the member who asked the question for a portion of his speech has thus been embalmed in ‘‘Hansard.’’ From what the Minister subsequently said about the facts in the speech it might bo thought, that tho candidate would probablv ’nave his future speeches embalmed in " Hansard" only by persuading some charitable member to act as an embalmor.