POLITICAL NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3356, 24 October 1911, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

PRECIOUS HOURS WASTED. STONEWALLING A BILL. (From our Parliamentary Importer.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 23. The dying hours of the session have now been reached, • but this evening members showed themselves very careless of the brief hours which still remain for the completion of the programme. Before the Lower House a stonewall was set up on the AAanganui ■Harbor Empowering Bill, which came before the House 'in committee. During this morning’s .sitting the measure encountered strong opposition during its preceding stages, and members on both sides of the House renewed thenobjections to its rating proposals. When tbe Bill came on again it was admitted that the rating district proposed by the measure was unfair, and the acceptance of a fairer proposal would have assured an easy passage for the Bill. The member for Wanganui declined the offer for a compromise, and he was supported by the Prime Minister and members of tlie Government party. In frequent divisions on motions which were intended to dispose of the Bill for 'his session, the action of the Government was only apparent on looking under A c surface, and it was generally supposed to be with a view in the first place of assisting Mr Hogan’s position at Die general election, which is regarded a ith some anxiety, and in the second nlaeo Jyv means of a protracted debate, to postpone, till the weary hours of the morning, the discussion on the Moiau inquiry-, which occupied a prominent place on the order paper. At midnight the Bill was still before the committee, and practically no progress has been made.