Labour Laments Shops Amendment

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 182, 22 October 1927, Page 5

Labour Laments Shops Amendment

PASSED AMID SNORES protests and forebodings (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. There were more recumbent forme than attentive members in the House of Representatives this evening, during the third reading „f the Shops and Offices Amendment Bill, which has occupied so many hours, and the Labour 3 a rty's last passionate cries of protest passed in the main over unheeding heads. Ur. It McKeen, Wellington South, sj r , j. A. Lee, Auckland East, Mr. ,T. jfjcombs, Lyttelton, and Mr. F. N. Bertram, Grey Lynn, reiterated Labour protests made during the committee stage, and added a little for good measure. ■‘This Bill will give more trouble than any other legislation under the Minister's control at the present time,’ darkly prophesied Mr. McKeen. Ur. Lee said that he would not bo human if he did not bestow a final liick on the “stodgy Tory Bill that was put through committee last night by a sleepy, snoring House.” No shops and offices amendment ever introduced into Parliament had demonstrated such an astonishing reversal of what had been, up to the introduction of this Bill, a general improvement in the conditions of workers. “The only clauses worth while are the new clauses dealing with matters not hitherto dealt with in the shops and offices legislation.” said Mr. Leo. More disparaging adjectives were supplied by Mr. McCombs, who said that the Bill was a “tinkering, disappointing, and reactionary measure.” He was going on to refer to the "wild and woolly men of the Reform Party” when the Speaker called him to order, and he substituted “these extremists.” The Minister of Education, tiie I-lon. It. A. Wright, defended the Bill, and said that there were few extremists in die Reform Party. There must be a limit beyond which concessions to employees could not go. Mr. Anderson replied briefly, and the Bill was read a third time and passed at 11.30 p.m., and the House adjourned.