PARLIAMENTARY JOTTINGS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 November 1921, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY JOTTINGS

! SPECIAL TO (iVAUUIAN. j DEATH OF W. HU’ M.P. | WELLINGTON. November I When the House met this afternoon ' there was the usual rush of questions j without notice. Several of them had been answered by Ministers, when Mr | Vo,me (Waikato) asked if it was the ■ intention „f Government this session to ' introduce legislation dealing with the ' question of preference to unionists. ■ This question was addressed to the I Minister for Labor. It was not I answered for just then Mr Massey rose and announced the death of the member for the Southern Maori District Mr I \y [Ten. The House adjourned iinme--1 diately until tho evening. I Mr Urn died in Wellington Public | Hospital. He had been in ill-health for i some time and before he went to the ! hospital he told some of his fellow i members that he regarded his e condition as serious. His death, how- ' ever, had not been expected, and came as a shock to Members of the House I who had found tho big Maori member | to bo a kindly and genial eompanion. WORK OF SESSION, j Mr Massey told members to-night that there were seventeen Bills still I to lie dealt with, including the Tariff Bill,. Moratorium Bill, aim to ! Works and Land Settlement (which ! would l>e really a loan Bill authorising the Government to raise money to carry ! on public works for development puri poses), Finance Bill (one of tho most , important measures of the session because it would provide the necessary j legislation for effecting economies and j retrenchment). Discharged Soldiers Settlement, Washing-Up Bills (Native and ' European) and there are about fifty ' other Bills said Mr Massey, hut there is not tho slightest chance of their 1 being dealt with during the present 'session. Members could finish before I Xmas if they worked hard and lost no ! time. Members looked sceptical. ! Resolutions making further amend- ! ments in the tariff were introduced ' and were adopted after a brief debate. ’ They remove the duty from petrol, re- ! dime the preferntial duty on motor ears ' and tyres, and make other amendments in earlier resolutions. | TARIFF BILL. ! The Prime Minister then moved the j second reading of the Tariff Bill. He I rend port ions of the report of the j Tariff Commission which suggested that industries hould be protected only until they could stand on their own feet, and that the profits of protected industrial should la: investigated periodienl- ! ly.

The debate that followed was not particularly interesting. Some exception was taken to the wide power proposed to he placed in the hands of Government. The Bill was read a second time.