Legislation Will be Light This Session

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 699, 26 June 1929, Page 1

Legislation Will be Light This Session

FINANCE AND RAILWAYS LAND PURCHASE PROBLEM

| (From Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, Today. Indications are that the first session of the United Government will not be marked by excessive legislation. Principal proposals for consideration by Parliament this session are the Government’s land settlement scheme; a new Bill designed to deal with transport problems; an alteration of the system of railway financing, which is stated to have the thorough approval of the new manager of railways, Mr. H. H. Sterling, and which will end the system introduced by Mr. Coates of making some lines a charge against the Consolidated Fund; and a general survey of the Civil Service. A Bill designed to consolidate the present Education Act and its amendments is also upon the stocks, and it is highly probable that the Minister of Education will take the opportunity of revising the provisions of the Act, and will submit a Bill framed in a manner to allow greater flexibility in administration, but not leaving such scope for regulations being made to govern matters which were not contemplated by the House. With these, and the usual crop of administrative amendments to existing Acts, it is unlikely that the session will continue for more than three months. The intention of the Government apparently is to get down to work, and introduce no more legislation than is considered absolutely necessary. With further investigation in various directions, it is anticipated that some more important proposals will be made to the House, but this session members are assured of a comfortable time. The sitting will also be memorable because of the fact that it is expected to become the first daylight session of Parliament. Little night work will be done if the proposals of the committee of the House are adopted by the members as a whole and already the proposals are understood to have been approved by the Leader of the Labour Party. A proposal of a time-limit on speeches will also facilitate business. The first expectation was that this move would cause the session to be dragged out by at least another month. Now it is felt that this is an erroneous impression. One interesting aspect of the session is that it is not yet apparent that the Government’s land settlement proposals will go ahead without modification. The purchase of blocks of land is likely to prove too expensive to pursue very far, and there is forecast a reversion to the policy of group settlement which was set out in the platform of the United Party. Legislatively small, but of great importance to the taxpayer will be the Government’s taxation proposals which will aim at a better graded system of taxation and which will undoubtedly affect the wealthier members of the community. One matter of importance to the South Island is the proposal that there shall be separate highways boards for each Island. It is by no means certain that this will ever reach the stage of a Bill, as it is obvious that some members of the United Party are opposed to it.