COMPARISONS IN HOUSE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19982, 6 July 1939, Page 5

COMPARISONS IN HOUSE

■ LABOUR REGIME

PREVIOUS EXPENDITURE BURDEN OF TAXATION WIDE RANGE IN DEBATE (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. In .a leisurely approach to the business of the session, the House of Representatives sat for only a few hours last night to hear two speeches on the Addi*ess-m-Reply. The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adana Hamilton, moved his expected' no-confidence motion and supported it with a well-packed speech relating to the country’s economic

position. Having already been challenged to show am alternative, Mr. Hamilton stressed the fact that the Opposition was not on trial, but the Government was tin that position, for the electors had' decided that the Nationalists should carry on in Opposition. “So our job," he added, “is to enlighten them." “Paralyse them,” Interjected the Ho®. F. Jones, the Minister of Defence. • Mr. Hamilton suggested that the demand for an alternative policy was a funk hole a man got into when beaten and retreating. The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates (Nat., Kaiipara): They are on the run. The Leader of the Opposition made contrasts in expenditure and taxation by the former Government and the present administration. He covered a wide range of subjects and provoked the declaration from the Prime Minister, who followed, that his critic had' been “doing the highland fling from one mud hole to another looking for ammunition to fire at,- the Government,” but that he ,seemed r to overlook the fact that “he and his associates were responsible for the mudholes they were talking about here ” Tke Prime Minister’s language, when explaining the admitted flight of capital, was strong. He also quoteda large quantity of statistics, suggesting a great advance in New Zea-

landers’ conditions under the Labour administration though the Opposition wanted to confine the discussions to the present-day situation. Was it, he asked, because they had a past not .to be brought into the open? The debate is to be continued today by .the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes (Nat., Hurunui).