STANDARDS BILL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1941, Page 7

STANDARDS BILL

APPROVED BV BOTH PARTIES OPPOSITION OBJECTIONS TO COMPULSION. DESIRE TO IMPROVE BILL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The debate on the Standards Bill occupied the House of Representatives for practically the whole of the afternoon and all of the evening sitting yesterday. The Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Sullivan, who explained the measure, said it was promoted by the Government in the interests of manufacturers, merchants and the consuming public alike. Its object was to encourage greater efficiency, to save waste in manufacture and to protect the people from deception and fraud. Opposition speakers, while approving the Bill in principle, strongly criticised a clause giving the Minister powers of compulsion in the application of standards, and contended that standardisation should be voluntary. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Holland) vigorously defended New Zealand industry. He said that members should be more careful in such a debate, lest they give a false impression that the cases they quoted were accepted as typical. In fact, the only people who needed checking were the few black sheep of industry. Mr Sullivan: “It is only the black sheep that were mentioned.” Mr Holland said that the Opposition welcomed the Bill on standards, and its criticism was designed not to impede the Bill, but to improve it. The Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) announced that at the completion of formal business today, the House would pay tributes to the late Mr David Jones, a former Minister of Agriculture and that the House would then adjourn till Thursday afternoon. There would thus be no sitting tonight. The House rose at 10.30 p.m. till 2.30 this afternoon.