DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 126, 24 November 1932, Page 14

DAY IN PARLIAMENT

'—+i — PUBLIC WORKS 'ESTIMATES

'A record in recent Parliamentary his-tory-was established last night, when the Public Works Estimates, including the Highways Vote, a total proposed expenditure of £3,620,700, was passed in three hours. The principal criticism centred around the Government's decision to pay a retaining fee of £250 a year to Mr. P. W. Furkert, formerly Engineer-in-Chief to the Public Works Department. On a division on this issue, four Coalitionists voted with Labour, but the vote was passed by 31 votes to 25. The members of the Opposition missed their opportunity to discuss the annual statement of the Minister of Public Works, allowing the motion adopting it to go through without a word being spoken.* The day saw three new Government measures introduced. The principal of these was the Municipal Corporations Bill, which, among other things, carries tho principle of longer tenures of office into effect as far as local bodies arp concerned. Of the other measures, the Mortgagors and'Tenants'Further Relief Bill is another instalment of what might bo termed emergency legislation occasioned by the present troublous times. The other Bill provides for the incorporation of the Municipal Association and the regulation of its functions. The House rose at 11.5 p.m.