POLITICAL GOSSIP.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8361, 26 July 1920, Page 3

POLITICAL GOSSIP.

NOTES FROM THE METROPOLIS. (Special to “Mail”). WELLINGTON, Last night. WAR REGULATIONS. The War Regulations Continuance Bill, proposes to continue certain of the War Regulations, some of them under the Board of Trade Act, as Board of Trade Regulations. Among the regulations which continue in force are the following:— Those dealing with the printing, publication, possession, etc., of literature inciting to lawlessness, or which expresses any seditious intent; regulations dealing with the sale or possession of firearms Or ammunition; issue of permits to leave the Dominion; enemy alien affairs and trading with the enemy; necessity for persons entering New Zealand to possess passports; shipping regulations and those dealing with the control of wharves and access of the public thereto; inciting to seditious strikes or lock-outs ; the protection of the guarantors of soldiers against judicial and other process; sale of intoxicating liquors in military camps;'' and those regulations relating to the protection of soldiers’ properties. The regulations which continue to operate under the Board of Trade Act are those dealing with the coal trade; the sale of flour, wheat, bran, and pollard; lighting; petrol; timber; milk supply; the sale and purchase of wool; and the boot trade.

BARMAIDS. Mr L. M. Isitt is asking for a return showing the number of barmaids who were on the register on June Ist, 1913, the number that have been added since that date, and the number that have been taken off the register since that date through death, through marriage, through other causes, the number of prosecutions there have been against the persons so registered, and the number of 'Convictions that have been entered. Mr Isitt expressed surprise that five more than had gone out of this occupation had been registered during the year. ARMS BILL. Moving the second reading of the Arms Bill, Mr Massey declared that it was largely a consolidating measure, but included some war regulations that had been found to work satisfactorily during the war. The need for the bill was stressed by the authorities. The practice of carrying firearms, especially automatic pistols, had increased largely during the past two or three years. He cited the fact that in the past two years there had been eight murders, sixty suicides, and seventy persons injured, many by automatic pistols, the possession of which under the Act would be made illegal. Arms dealers would be subject to drastic regulations. Returned soldiers may retain automatic pistols secured as trophies of war if they obtain permission. Private persons may keep ordinary revolvers in dwelling houses, but no person may carry arms without a permit. In case of a riot the authorities may proclaim an area and take possession of all arms therein. In connection with the proscription of automatic pistols, the Government would purchase all such delivered to it by present owners up to January Ist next. AMERICAN MEAT MARKET. Was there any foundation for the rumor that the Government was likely to obstruct or discourage sheepfarmers from further developing the excellent market for lamb in America 1 ? asked Mr AY. H. Field (Otaki) in the House of Representatives; and would the Government, on the contrary, see that the market was a free Dae and encourage the export to a market likely to be double the English mafe ket for New Zealand lamb?

The Prime Minister replied that the market was now free, but the whole of bur lamb up to the end of June had been sold to the Imperial Government. So far as the New Zealand Government was concerned, its attitude was that the more markets that were found for our produce the better. The honorable member, however, knew that the House passed about two years ago legislation intended to protect New Zealand producers against the practices of which the Meat Trust was guilty in the Argentine and elsewhere. The position the Government took up was, the higher the market and the better the price the better the Government would be pleased, because it was the better for the country. In this connection, he would ask the producers to assist the Government in maintaining the legislation referred to. Mr Field: AA r e will see to that. TRACTS TAXED. In Parliament Mr Isitt called the attention of the Minister for Customs to the fact that the British Trading Association was issuing by the million a volume intended to encourage inter-Empire trading. AYas the Customs Department, he asked going to tax these as advertisements? He knew that the Department was r the habit of taxing as advertising matter religious tracts such as “Are You Going to Heaven?” (Laughter). A member: Are you going? (Laughter) . Was the Department, asked Mr Isitt, going to tax the volumes referred to duty at the rate of 3s a pound? Was that the Minister’s proposition? Sir William Herries said that the question was one that should be put on the Order Paper.