IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2430, 19 February 1909, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT. NAVAL EXPENDITURE. United Press Association, Copyright LONDON, Feb. 17. The ‘‘Times” states that the presence ol the King redeemed the opening of the session, otherwise it would have been a tame one. The subject of disestablishment in Wales will not be pressed beyond the second reading of the Bill, and it will then be reserved as a missile to fling at the Lords in the succeeding session. The real interest centres in the Budget’s specific recognition that increased expenditure on the Navy is necessary, and the statement is very welcome.

THE UNEMPLOYMENT QUESTION ANIMATED DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. (Received Feb. 18, 11.5 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 18. There are thirty amendments to the Address-in-Reply. Mr. G. H. Barnes (Labor), dealing with the inadequate proposals in regard to the unemployment question, declared that its twin causes were private ownership of land and capitalism. He demanded land taxation, the nationalisation of canals and railways, and shorter hours of labor. Ending passionately, he said lie would rather be outside the House if time was to be trifled away. The Labor party, he declared, would be better employed in rousing the country. Mr. John Burns, in an emphatic speech, which aroused much dissent, attributed unemployment to the violent fluctuations in industry among the engineers, ship-builders, boilermakers, and in the building trade, and. to the difficulty of unorganised unskilled laborers. He said that if a tithe of the money spent on drink were expended in insuring against unemployment, much misery would b.e saved.. The Government, he stated, was considering the afforestation report, and would deal with the Poor Law Commission this session. The new Irish Land Bill, by preventing the lannual. influx of forty or fifty ■thousand Irish laborers to the North of England, would do much. The amendment of the old age pensions scheme would involve an expenditure of a further three or four millions. Mr. W. Crooks (Labor) described the King’s Speech as all window-dres-sing, and the labor exchanges as a bogey only useful to a few clerks. He said that unless the Government dealt with unemployment this session the Labor party would raise a campaign that would make the Government sorry lor their great beti ayal of starving people. Mr. ‘Winston Churchill said that the exchanges were the gateway of industrial security from unemployment. Insurance would follow later. Afforestation‘ and sweated industries boards were helps. Tariff reform as a solution was a mockery, an irrelevance, and an impertinence. Mr. Barnes’ amendment was defeated by 205 against 101.