PARLIAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 30 March 1931, Page 4

PARLIAMENT

HOUSE. (11 y Telegraph — l'cr Press Association) WELLINGTON, Alai'ch 30. The House of Representatives resumed at 2.30 p.m. on Saturday. The debate on the Prime Minister’s molt',m seeking to incorporate the principle of the closure in the Standing Ord.Ts was continued. Mr AI aso n moved ail amendment expressing the opinion that the proposed alteration should Lie re erred to a Special Committee on the lines adopted in the case of alterations to the Standing Orders in the past. The debate on this wa s continued. When the i louse resumed at 7.30, Air Coates suggested that the Speaker and Chairman of Committees should he given discretionary powers as to the application of the closure, and that it should only remain in force im to the end of the present Mr McCombs said Air Coates first ptoposal indicated he had been convinced by the advocacy of such a course by the Labour Party. Mr McCombs described the second proposal as monstrous. It seemed the closure was to apply to the Labour Party. Mr Mason’s amendment was defeated by 44 to 24.

Air Langstone moved an amendment to prevent the closure being applied while a member was speaking. The debate was interrupted by tho rising of the House at midnight till 2.30 p.m. on Monday.

The motion moved by the Prim® Minister is that the Standing Orders be amended by inserting the fol.ouing new Standing Order: —

(1) After a question (except, a question already barred from debate under the Standing Orders) has been proposed Iroiu the chair either in th 3 House or in Committee of the whole House, a motion may he made by anv member without notice, and whether any cither member is addressing the chair or not, “That the question he now put,’’ and the motion shall ho put fortwith and decided without amendment or debate.

(2) When a motion “That the question he now put’ has been caiiied and the question consequent thereon has been decided, any further motion may he at once made which may be requisite to bring to a decision any question already proposed from tbc chair, and also, if an amendment, or amendments, have been proposed to a motion, clause, section, sub-section', schedule, or other matter under consideration when the motion “That the question be now put” is carried, such amendment or amendments, together with the original question, shall, subject to the provisions of Standing Order No. 100, he put forthwith and decided without further amendment or debate.

(3) An affirmative vote of not fewer than twenty members shall he necessary to carry any motion under this Standing Order.