WELLINGTON TOPICS
the APPROPRIATION bill,
RO3IE CRITICISM.
(Special Correspondent).
WELLINGTON, December 12.
Tired occupants of t.© press gallery in -the House of Representatives at four o’clock on Friday morning were aro-itsed t(> -at-tentbon by a protest from Hr R. A. Wright, the member for Wellington Suburbs, against 3D W. Newton, the recently r.tired Secretary of Labour, figuring in the Appr 'Pria. ic-n Bill, then before the House, as a Conciliation Commissioner with a salary in addition to his pension. The Hon. Adam Hamilton, the Minister of I.i:iboor, hastened to tell Mr Wright that 31 r Newton’s services- as secretary of Labour bad been terminated on November 17 last and that the clause in th© Bill would enable him to draw both hits -superannuation and his salary -a-s commissioner. 31 rH. E. Hollar.:! 1 , the- Leader of the Opposition, protested strongly that the principle embodied in tlie Bill was undesirable and that there was no reasonable excuse for its application in the way proposed by the 31 blister. A TEMPORARY APPOINT3IENT.
Mr Hamilton further explained that the arrangement was only a temporary 'one, probably extending over a couple of months, and would not become a general practice. But 3!r Wright was not to- fi© assuaged by this ministerial assurance. “I think isome member* of the Government party,” lie insisted, “should warn the Prime Minister that the Coalition is really going headlong to destruction ovei
matters such an those contained in this clause. Everything stated by the Opposition membe s is true. Everywhere I go I find the place reeking with these cases of retired public servants being -given jobs.” Statements of this kind corning from a stalwart Reformer of twenty-five, years’ standinwith ministerial rank "to his credit, cannot be ignored. It was only by a majority of three in a House of sixty-one that the Government gGt its way. INDEPENDENT PROTESTS. f The fact that five stalwart members of the Coalition party voted with the Opposition on this occasion suggests that 3h* Forbcts and 3D* Coates are not likely to have an entirely smooth path during the three vear-s the present- Parliament has D> -rim. A paragraph from 31 r Wright’s protest already has been quoted. Mr R. R. Kyle, the member for Ric-ca-rt-on, regretted the Government was continuing such a bad -practice. MrA. Harris, the member for Waitemata, did not believe the appointment h-d been appi-oved by one member outside the Cabinet. 3L- A. J. Stallworthy, the member far Eden, dedared there would be a very .strong feeling against the procedure throughout the country. The Hon. A. Hamilton admitted that the appointment was open to criticism and undertook that it would h© not unncessa-rily prolonged. From no source, it is i scarcely necessary to say, wa.s any suggestion Guide that 31 r Newton was personally unsuited for Lite position.
AVHAT NEXT? With Parliament prorogued and the Christmas-New Year holidays ait hand, little may he'heard of politics during the next three or four weeks. But the Prime A fillister and ltx<* onl.’Maguieis will have plenty to think about and to scheme. about during this period. Afeanwliile they have left the public—or at anv rate the portion of the public that thinks about such matters—with .a lmzy notion of the political condition of the Dominion. Air Forbes has hinted more than once that the financial position of the country will be even “more difficult” next year than it h?,* been during the year just passing away. But it will be time enough for the country to fret itself over these alarms when the.v are in sight. For the time being it be--1 Hires, the Government to set- its own affairs in the closest possible order, and to see that adequate preparation is made for the solution of the awaiting problems.
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Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1932, Page 6
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628WELLINGTON TOPICS Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1932, Page 6
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