§ MR. W. E. FORSTERIt may be convenient, Sir, if I take this opportunity of stating that when we proceeded with the Elections (Parliamentary and Municipal) Bill yesterday the Government had 754 hoped that very great progress would have been made with it, and, in fact, at one time it appeared possible that the measure might have got through Committee on that occasion. Unfortunately, the progress of the Bill was delayed in consequence of the unexpected difficulty created by one of the clauses. Of that delay, however, I do not in the slightest degree complain, seeing that it was necessary that the provisions of the clause to which I have referred should be fully discussed; we intend to proceed with the measure to-morrow night, and having carefully looked over the Amendments on the Paper, I am persuaded that they are far less threatening than they appear to be at first sight, many of them having been already disposed of by previous decisions of the Committee. Under these circumstances I trust that if the measure does not actually get through Committee to-morrow we may, at all events, make considerable progress with it.
§ House adjourned at Ten minutes before Six o'clock.