PROMPT TREATMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 156, 1 June 1940, Page 9

PROMPT TREATMENT

DEBATE IN HOUSE. CRITICAL COMMENTS. Per Press Association. - WELLINGTON, May 31. In the House of Representatives, this afternoon, the Emergency Regulations Amendment Bill, which authorises the issue of regulations requiring persons to place themselves and their property at the disposal of the State, passed the . second reading without division and was put through the Committee stages in eight minutes, given a third reading and passed. The Prime Minister (Hon. P. Eraser) thanked Hie House, for the promptitude with which it had dealt with the measure. Mr. A. E. Jill I, continuing his speech, criticised the Government’s waterside control policy. There was no effectjvo control over the organisations which were an essential part of'the country’s life, he said. It was a case of Rafferty rules, and those - were times when efficiency was needed and the people were looking for a lead and were not getting it. COALITION OPPOSED. Mr C. L. Carr said he supported the Bil|, but opposed the arguments in favour of a Coalition Government. 'J’he Government had given an assurance, he said, that tiie powers of the Bill would be exercised as required and only when required, and he hoped conscription would never lie required. ~ With "regard to the question of coalition he stated that the Government supporters were as opposed to it as were the Opposition supporters in favour of it. The Opposition had always stood for the principle of “let the poor pay.” This had been demonstrated in the last war and during the slump. What help, therefore, could the Government expect from the Opposition with a policy so diametrically opposed to its own policy? Party rancour should be eliminated during the war period, and the Opposition should abandon its talk of a coalition and assist the Government in the task ’it was undertaking.

■ OPPOSITION’S DESIRE. Mr H. G. Dickie stated that the Opposition was; not asking for a Coalition Government, but for a National Government. The Labour Government could not claim to represent every section of the community. The fanning section of the country was not, strongly represented in the Government, and those sitting on the Treasury benches had little knowledge of the primary producing industry. Air Dickie claimed that fewer men were doing development work on the land to-day than were employed five months ago. The bulk of the people were behind the proposal for a National Government, and did nob want handpicked lot of 'men administering \New Zealand’s affairs—men who did not represent the people. s WATERSIDE LABOUR. Ihe Minister of.Labour (Hon. P. C. IVebb) said members of the Opposition had appealed to the Government to reduce the number of men on public works, but if only one-tenth of the requests ior new roads always being received by the Government were acceded to the number of men on public works would have to he doubled. He strongly defended the Government’s attitude with regard to the waterside labour question, stating that the average earnings of the waterside labourer werej only, on a par with those of the average tradesman and were less tliaii those of the machinist! The Waterfront Commissioners recently appointed by the Government, he said, were doing valuable work and the Waterfront Commission was working in conjunction with the companies and watersiders themselves in the direction of solving one of the most difficult problems with which this country had been faced. The Government’s task was to try to get boats in" and out of the ports of the Dominion as rapidly as possible, and to this end the contract system for waterside work was being introduced, which it was believed would revolutionise work on the waterfronts of this country.

RECRUITING METHODS. Mr W. J. Poison said the Opposition had done its best in the eight months of the war to assist the Government in the voluntary system of recruitment, and tlie fact that almost 50,000 men had already- volunteered showed its efforts had been successful. In doing this the Opposition had subordinated its very strong views on the subject towards co-ordinated effort with the Government, but he considered the Government had failed to grasp the need for doing more in this direction until it was too late. The election result in Auckland II est had not- been an endorsement of tlie Government’s war policy, as had been contended by some members of the Government, and Mr Poison considered that if a War Council were set up as jiroposed by the present Administration it would prove a clumsy and unwieldy addition to already numerous boards and councils already in being. It was, moreover, an undemocratic principle. Rev. A. H. Nordmeyer said the British precedent did not apply, because the British Government had already run its course. The New Zealand Government had a right to carry on in the war because it had been elected about'the time of the Munich crisis, when the people knew war was still probable. They should have a War Council, but not a coalition. MR COBBE’S OPINION.

Hon. J. G. Cobbe said he regarded it as the duty of the Opposition not to take part in a War Council, which they considered would not carry out the country’s war effort efficiently. Mr E. B. Gordon considered that Parliament should have been called together in February so that it would have had plenty of time to make the necessary arrangements for the prosecution of the war - effort instead of being called , together at the eleventh

hour as it were because a state of emergency, existed. Mr Fraser, briefly replying, said that the question of the formation of a War Council had been under consideration long before there had been any demand for a National Government. Personally, he thought that the War Council would work, and he referred to the - important place the War Council had had in Britain during the last war. The' suggestion had not been put forward in New Zealand as a counter-suggestion to the formation of a National Government, and there would be no delay in implementing the War Council’s decisions. The Government still wished to secure the cooperation of the Opposition in the War Council.

HOSPITALITY PLAN. Before the House rose at 5.35 MiEraser intimated that the secret , session would commence on Wednesday at 2.30 p.m. He also stated that a suggestion that the Dominion should offer to receive war widows and orphans was under consideration at the present time, and the Government was in touch with the British Government oh the matter. The House rose until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday.