WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1920, Page 1

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

(Our Special Correspondent). MEMBERS’ FREE PASSAGES. DECLINED WITH THANKS. WELLINGTON, August 9. It was left to Mr T. K. Sidey, the member for Dunedin South, to hell the cat in connection with the free passages between Wellington and Lyttelton offered to th e South Island members of Parliament by the Union Company. During the discussion of the Estimates on Friday evening he called the attention of the Prime Minister to the matter and suggested very delicately the acceptance of such favours by the people's representatives from a proprietary concern would place the beneficiaries in an invidious position and establish a very undesirable precedent. Mr Massey concurred with Mr Sidey and after explaining how the free passages came to be ofl'ered announced his intention to make the members’ travelling expenses a charge upon the public funds. THE COLLAPSED DEBATE.

There were some recrimination in the House on Friday night concerning the collapse of the Financial Debate, Mr Wilford implying that members who had wished to speak on the Budget had been tricked out of their opportunity to do so, and Mr Massey indignantly repudiated the suggestion. Ihe truth of the matter appears to ho that quite a number of members were out of the House preparing their speeches and relying on Mr J. P. Luke, who had moved the adjournment on the previous day, keeping the “pot boiling” for his full hour. But Mr Luke sent word to the Whips he would be unable to continue the talking and Mr George Hunter who took his place hold the floor lor only twenty minutes or so. Then the Prime Minister got his opportunity and took it, probably as any other leader would have done.

GETTING TO WORK. Mr Massey promises that members of Hie House will ho kept more fully occupied for the rest of the session than they have been for the five or six weeks just past. To-morrow’s Order Paper is a. fairly full one, including the Civil List Bill and the Standard Time Bill. The C ivil hist Bill proposes the increase of Ministers’ and members’ salaries and though it does not contain a great deal of controversial matter, a considerable number of members may wish to explain how the additional pay will benefit their constituents and the country. The GIGO a year now suggested is not considered by any means excessive, indeed it is quite possible a further increase may be proposed, but it is generally thought that this is a matter for the Government to determine. endowment lands.

There was a little flutter among the old leasehold stalwarts remaining in the House on Friday when Mr 0. H. Guthrie, the Minister of Lands, signified his intention during the present session of giving,Parliament "a chance of removing the national endowment harrier.” There would be no robbing of the endowments, he declared, but the Government would give the settlers the right if they brought the land into productivity to make it their own. Mr Guthrie did not explain lmw this would he done, hut in reply to an interjection by Mr Witty he said if the member for Ricearton had a little experience in bursting up big estates he would not talk so°confidently about this process. Bursting up sometimes cost more than the value of the land. The present House, with the exception of the Offi. cial Labour section, is not very keen on the land question, and the members of this section, unhappily, do not direct •pheir zeal with a fgeat deal of understanding.