PARLIAMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3884, 15 December 1928, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

FINANCE BILL PASSED. Parliament yesterday concluded its business for the time' being. The Finance Bill was passed without amendment at 3.35 a.m., after a debate which had commenced at 7.30 p.m. the previous day. The House resumed at 11.30 a.m., when formal business was transacted, and the season’s greetings were exchanged. Mr. Speaker, in acknowledging the good wishes of member,s, complimented the Government on their conduct in the hour of victory and the Opposition on the manner in which they had accepted defeat. Before the House rose, at 1.10 pan., the Prime Minister announced the appointment of a. Select Committee to make inquiries during the recess in regal’d to the question of daylight sittings for Parliament.

The Finance Bill provides for the extension of the existing appropriations to the tune of £825,000 toprovide for additional railway construction (£500,000), roads construction (£100,000), hydro-elec-tricity (£100,000), main highways maintenance and construction (£100,000), and State forests (£25,000), and to extend the annual borrowing authority for the acquisition of lands for settlement .from £750,000 to £1,000,000. In addition, to increase from £300,000 to £400,000 the aggregate amount of the subsidy payable to local authorities for expenditure on unemployment relief, and, to pay 14/- a day to Public Works relief workers in the country. The Bill also provides for the Continuance of the Rent Restriction legislation.