Mr. Speaker . . . Session Queries and Asides

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 737, 9 August 1929, Page 1

Mr. Speaker . . . Session Queries and Asides

(THE SUN'S Parliamcntari / Reporter) PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Today. The House of Representatives, under the new Standing Orders, met at 10.30 this morning. Mr .F. Langs tone (Waimarino) gave notice of intention to introduce the Bank of Xew Zealand Amendment Bill. Good progress was made with the Budget debate yesterday, eight speakers contributing to the discussion. The debate will be continued tomorrow, and if today’s progress is maintained, there appears every likelihood of the finale being reached well within the next fortnight. • « * South African Farmers The Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, states that he has been advised from South Africa that the proposed visit of South African farmers to the Dominion this year will not take place. Seeking a Scapegoat The charge that the Hon. W. Downie Stewart had been made a scapegoat, in order to explain the failure of the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, to make good his election promise to obtain cheap money, was made by Mr. R. A. Wright (Wellington Suburbs). If Mr. Stewart had done anything to embarrass Sir Joseph Ward, too Reform Party wanted to see the mysterious document on the file which would show the allegation to be true, said Mr. Wright, who added that he knew there was no such document on the file. Such mystery might have been all right in the Dark Ages, when the medicine man would not reveal the sacred secrets to people, but that sort of thing was not believed in today, and now that the loan had been completed the House had a right to have the facts. Mr. Wright further hoped the Prime Minister would clear up the mystery attaching to the Valle letter incident, concerning which a reflection had been cast on the Leader of the Opposition. • m * One Less Visit to Movies The extra primage duty means to each person in Xew Zealand merely the price of- one admission to a picture theatre over the whole year, according to a statement made by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, in the House last evening. Mr. Ransom said that the extra duty would result in an extra 2s lid a year. The tax. he said, would not have the same effect on working people as on the wealthier families, as the bulk of Dominion imports were more or less luxuries. Mr. P. Fraser (Wellington Central): Tou think it quite a good tax, then? Mr. Ransom said that he would like to see it removed as much as Mi. Fraser would. Mr. Fraser: Why put it on, then? Mr. Ransom went on to say that tr.e extra duty would mean £1 to £5 on American motor-cars. A Member: And on British cars, too. Mr. Ransom: The extra primage duty has become an urgent necessity, but it is quite a temporary necessity. * * « Fewer On Public Works The claim that the Government had increased unemployment rather thau decreased it was made by Mr. H. T. Armstrong (Christchurch South) in the course of his finance debate speech Quoting from the “Abstract Statisfor December, 1924, he said that 10.161 men had been employed on public works, in July, 1929, 9,805 men. or 356 fewer, had been employed. It might be claimed that the Government was helping local bodies, but Mr. Armstrong, speaking from his experience of 10 years as a City Councillor said that the present Government was doing no more than the previous one. If the local bodies in the country were not doing everything possible for unemployment relief it would go harder still for the working people. For the first time for many years, with a new Government which had promised to relieve the problem in office, there had been fewer men on public works in the winter than in the summer. Mr. Armstrong urged that the Government make an immediate start with the urgent question of unemployment insurance. This would help considerably in alleviating distress. “I am goirg to ask the Minister of Public Works,” concluded Mr. Armstrong, “to deny the figures I have quoted.” Last Day for Local Bills The House of Representatives was just starting to sail away on the ocean of rhetoric in the financial debate yesterday, beginning with Sir George Hunter (Waipawa), when Mr. J. McCombs (Lyttelton) Interrupted the speaker on a point of order. Ordinarily during the debate there is no other business taken, but Mr. McCombs pointed out that, according to the Standing Orders, the day was the last on which local Bills could be introduced. It was six weeks from the opening of Parliament, he said. Asked on the point? by M.r. Speaker, the Prime Minister (the Right' Hon. Sir Joseph Ward) said that he had no objection to local Bills being introduced. m Accordingly, the Borough of Lyttelton Corporation Enabling Bill, and the Wellington Milk Supply Amendment Bill, were introduced and read a first time. * Mr. Speaker’s Warning When the member for Parnell, Mr. H. R. Jenkins, was speaking in the House this evening, he was subjected to considerable interruption. The Speaker called the House to order, but as the interruption and. laughter continued, the Speaker declared:—‘‘l shall have to name soma member shortly.”