DAYLIGHT-SAVING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 132, 25 August 1927, Page 15

DAYLIGHT-SAVING

Summer Time Bill Encounters Night-Long Stonewall in Committee

SUSPENDED FOR WEEK

(THE SUX’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-day. HAD it not been for the death of the Hon. K. F. Bollard, -Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. T. K. Sidey’s Summer Time Bill may have emerged successfully from an all-night buffeting on the committal stage. After sitting until 7 o’clock the House of Representatives adjourned for two hours, during which Mr. Sidey and Mr. Glenn were to confer. Upon resuming the sad news of Mr. Bollard’s death was received and the House immediately adjourned. The Summer Time Bill will be taken at its present stage next week. A surprise was sprung last evening among opponents of the Bill by Labour members’ withdrawal from to-day’s order paper of two of their own Bills, thus making way for Mr. Sidey’s measure which was next in order. The secret of Labour intentions had been well kept, and the move was a complete surprise to the majority of the members.

It was expected that the Legislature Amendment Bill No. 2, sponsored by, Mr. H. E. Holland, and the Fair Rents Bill, in charge o£ Mr. M. J. Savage, Auckland West, would be discussed at great length after other business in the afternoon had been disposed of, and that the Summer Time Bill would not be reached this evening. However, when the House resumed at 7.30 Mr. P. Fraser, Wellington Central, gave an indication of what was coming by asking that Mr. Holland’s Bill should be postponed till next private members’ day as Mr. Holland was unable to be present in the House because of the injury to his knee. Mr. W. S. Glenn, Rangitikel, who appeared to be the organiser of the forces in opposition to Mr. Sidey, sprang up to protest against interference with the orders of the House, and was backed up by Mr. W. D. Lysnar, but the Speaker refused to accept their points of order. Amid laughter a division was called for on Mr. Fraser’s motion, but after the doors had been locked and tbe question was again put there was such an overwhelming chorus of “Ayes” that tlie Speaker declared the motion carried on the voices, to the relief of Mr. Sidey, who was anxiously gauging the strength of his opponents. Mr. Savage then rose to move a similar postponement for his Bill, and within a couple of minutes the doors were again locked for a division. This time the dissentients insisted, but the motion was carried by 43 votes to 21. The voting was as follows: —-

AYES, 43 Anderson McLennan Armstrong Mason, TI. G. R. Bartram . Mason, J. Bell Ngata Bellringer Noswortliy Buddo Parry Coates Potter Dickie Ransom Dickson, J. S. Roiieston, F. J. Forsyth Savage Frasc-r Seddon Harris Sidey Hawken Stewart Horn Sullivan Howard Sykes Hudson Veitch Jordan Waite Lee, E. P. Walter . Lee, J. A, Williams Luke Wright McCombs Young Mclieen -hfOES, 21 Bitchener Kyle Dickson, J. McC. Linklater Eliott Lysnar Field Macmillan Forbes Nash Glenn Pomare Hamilton, A. Reid Hamilton, J. R. Rhodes Hunter Roiieston, J. C. Jones. D. Samuel Jones, W.

The Summer Time Bill was then called upon for the committee stage and Mr. Sidey took hig seat beside Mr. F. F. Hockly. Chairman of Committees. amid laughter and applause. Mr. Glenn immediately criticised the tactics of the Labour Party in abandoning two Bills in favour of Mr. Sidey’s measure. Making' a Night of It It was early apparent that the opponents of the Bill were determined to take full advantage of the time allowed for the discussion, and members on the opposite sides began to twit each other about the hours of talk ahead, supporters of Mr. Sidey making it quite clear that they were willing to make a night of it if necessary. All the old arguments for and against were brought out and dusted and thrown in to aid in the consumption of time. Mr. Sidey was congratulated on his persistency, criticised, sympathised with, and belaboured. Members used up all their stocks of adjectives in alternately praising and decrying the Bill, and were facetious, serious, sarcastic and dull by turns. Speakers were reproved for straying from the subject, and members were rebuked for ' drowning utterances in storms of interjections. They laughed frequently, yawned as often and dozed intermittently, while now and again someone reminded speakers that it was a long time till morning. Twice before 1 a.m. there were protests that there was not a quorum in the House, hut each time it was found that tile objector had missed some members, who were asleep? So the weary round of argument dragged along, and after five hours of talk the House was still discussing the short title. Struggling Settlers The Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, said he believed that in the cities and boroughs the Bill would be welcomed, but for the people in the country, who were struggling settlers, the scheme seemed to be impossible. He pictured people in the back blocks leaving their farms to carry their cream out ou horseback and arriving at the delivery station too late to catch the trains, which would have to be run in accordance with summer time. The patience of Mr. J. R. Hamilton, Awarua, became exhausted at 2 a.m. and he moved that the committee report progress, but tile motion was defeated on a division by 3S votes to 19. One and a-quarter hours later the Hon. A. T. Ngata moved an amend-

ment that the word time be deleted from the short title and another word be substituted. Members spent another two hours in speculating as to the meaning of the amendment, but Mr. Ngata maintained a close reticence. At 5.15 a.m. Mr. Hockly ruled that no further reference to the motives underlying the amendment be allowed. There was still plenty of scope for talk and the division on the amendment was taken at 6.20 a.m., the amendment being lost by 36 votes to IS. In a speech just before seven o’clock Mr. Coates said that the public would stand only a certain amount, and would not think much of them if they used the forms of the House to extremes. The House adjourned at seven to resume in two hours’ time. Mr. Glenn and Mr. Sidey arranged to hold a conference at 5.30 to discuss tactics. Exemptions Accepted During the debate Mr. Sidey indicated his willingness to accept amendments exempting coalminers, shearers and threshing-mill employees from the provisions of the Bill, and reducing the period of its operation by a fortnight. The committee was to have resumed at nine o’clock, but on receipt of the news of Mr. Bollard’s death at Parliament Buildings, conferences were held and when the chairman of committees resumed his chair at 9.30 Mr. Sidey moved to report progress and asked for leave to sit again. Members readily agreed, and the Speaker took the chair. Mr. Coates asked the consent of the House for an immediate adjournment, and said that it was the desire of the Government that Mr. Sidey’s Bill should be further considered in committee next week at the stage at which it was left this morning. Mr. Coates also asked the leave of the House for committees to sit this morning, if necessary, despite the adjournment, in order not to inconvenience witnesses who had come from a distance. The Leader of the Opposition concurred and suggestions were formally adopted, after which the House adjourned until to-morrow afternoon.