SESSION INCIDENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 441, 24 August 1928, Page 16

SESSION INCIDENTS

Queries and Asides

(THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, To-day. , After the storm, the calm. Yesterday afternoon’s proceedings in the House, following the crowded hours of the night before, were tame by comparison. Mr. Sullivan’s A.nnual Leave Bill enjoyed a blameless first reading. It is extremely unlikely to have the expedience repeated on its second showing. The House in the evening put several local Bills, including the Lyttelton Harbour Bill, through the second reading. The Surveyors Registration, Property Law Amendment, Magistrates Court, and Rabbit Nuisances Bills were all read the third time and passed. & « ifc Languid Discussions Production by Sir Maui Pomare of the reports of various fire boards were greeted with complete lack of enthusiasm. A further report on Forestry operations passed by without a murmur, the subject having been amply thrashed out earlier in the week. Then came the Internal Affairs report, which yielded a languid discussion filling in the remainder of the afternoon. About Members Mr. T. M. Wilford, who had been absent with influenza, returned to the House to-day. The Hon. J. A. Young, Minister of Health, is paying a flying visit to Hamilton. The Hon. Sir Maui Pomare seems now to be in considerably better health . than he was enjoying at the opening of the session. * » » Live-wire Peril How a wire was thrown purposely across a high-tension electric-power line, thus passing the deadly current into miles of wire fencing,., was told by Mr. J. A. Nash (Palmerston North) to-day. He suggested that a reward should be paid for the detection of persons guilty of the dangerous practice of tampering with high-power transmission lines. The Minister, the Hon. K. S. Williams, fully realising the danger, said he would go very seriously into the question. Brighter Parliament Mr. W. E. Parry: I have never yet come upon hats, boots, and clothes growing on trees. Mr. T. D. Burnett: To Hades with the Arbitration Court, and anything of that nature. Mr. W. D. Lysnar (to Mr. H. T. Armstrong): How would you manage the country’s business? Mr. Armstrong: If I couldn’t manage it better than the hon. member, I’d go and die. An Old, Old Story An old tale was broached by Labour this afternoon, when the Internal Affairs report gave Messrs. J. A. Lee and M. J. Savage opportunely to assail the Government for the too-glowing promises held out to prospective immigrants in a pamphlet, “The Brighter Britain

of the South.” circulated in England in 1926. Mr. Lee asserted that the pamphlet had lured thousands away from England since 1925* Sir Maui Pomare: You must think it was circulated before it was printed. Mr. Hawken: The statements were true at the time. Mr. Lee: They have never been true. Listen to this: “Crown lands dre available, suitably fenced and roaded.” Mr. P. Fraser: Where, oh where? “A Jolly Good Book” Sir Maui Pomare, making his first speech of the session, was amusing in his reply to Labour criticism of the pamphlet. “It’s a jolly good book,” he affirmed. The welcome promised to immigrants was surely sufficient. Did Labour members want the officials to go rushing down to the wharf with a new House of Representatives brush, with which to attend to the newcomers? An interjection by Mr. Lee Martin (Raglan) led the Minister to say: “Tho hon. member for Raglan thinks he is the pnly one in this House who knows what he’s talking about, and he only knows when he’s asleep. ... I can knock over these arguments as easily as knocking over an Aunt Sally,” concluded the Minister. * Shags and Deer “Owing to damage done to the fisheries by shags the payment of royalty at the rate of 2s 6d a head for shags killed in the Rotorua and Taupo districts was continued,” says the report of the Department of Internal Affairs, “and a total of 748 shags was thus paid for. There has been a good deal of comment in various quarters whether the shag is quite as bad as he is painted, but there would not appear to be much doubt that as far as the thermal district is concerned he would not be missed if he were to be entirely exterminated, as among other things the bird is known to be the immediate host of the wireworm.” During the past year the Government continued to assist in the thinning of deer by way of a bonus for each deer killed. 16,499 being killed.