LENGTH OF SESSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1941, Page 4

LENGTH OF SESSION

AND QUESTION OF GENERAL ELECTION STATEMENT BY MR NASH. ANNOUNCEMENT BY PREMIER AWAITED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Unless the election scheduled for this year is postponed, it is expected that the session of Parliament will end within three weeks or a month. The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, who has visited Britain at the invitation of the War Cabinet, is due back in New Zealand early this month, and it is expected that he will lose no time in advising the House and the country whether or not an election will be held. When asked last night about the procedure of deciding on the election issue, the acting-Prime Minister, Mr Nash, said that he would discuss the matter with Mr Fraser on his return. No doubt Mr Fraser would discuss the question also with Parliament, and with the Government Party, but at this stage it would not be right to say there would not be a caucus of the Labour Party to discuss a general election. Mr Nash supported the view that the House would probably complete its business about the end of the present month. Apart from several important measures, some of which are certain to provoke controversy, already before the House, there remain others to be introduced. These include the War Damages Bill, the Repatriation Bill, and the Land and Income-tax (Amendment) Bill, as well as minor annual Biljs. Some of the measures that have been brought down already, and are at present with committees, will doubtless occupy considerable time of the House. Chief among these is the Social Security Amendment Biff, which is expected from the public health committee this week, while the Crimes Amendment Bill, abolishing the death sentence for murder, is also likely to provoke extended discussion. In these circumstances, it might appear that three, or four more weeks, with only three sitting days a week, would not suffice to finish the business. It is understood, however, that as soon as Mr Fraser returns, the House will resume sitting for four days a week, and there has even been an unofficial suggestion that it might sit on Mondays also if necessary.