Notes From The Gallery

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 8, 18 August 1939, Page 23

Notes From The Gallery

(By

Our Special Representative

Ninepence Stays at Home + It Took 100 Years Mr. Lee is Silent + The Council Keeps at It Pardon the Pun

Y now the general anxiety that attended the illness and operation of the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon, M. J. Savage) will have given way to a feeling of relief on the part of all sections of the community that he is convalescing satisfactorily. His final appearance in the House before he entered hospital was the courageous act of a sick man, and no one probably will ever appreciate just what effort it cost him to stand on his feet for nearly an hour and a half while he read the Budget. The only times he displayed any feeling of strain was when he wearily passed his hand across his forehead once or twice. Who Cares, Anyway? And talking of millions, the Public Debt of New Zealand is £304,000,000. The Budget mentioned it in an incidental kind of way, but if it had not been for that few people outside the Treasury and a few economists would have known about it. And now that the disclosure has been made no one seems to be worrying very much about itto the man in the street it looks like the answer to something out of an in- telligence test. It is mentioned now merely to show that when it comes to building things, New Zealand can hold its chin up-with or without the desire to keep its head above water. After all, it has taken us a hundred years to borrow all that. Sing a Song of Ninepence Ninepence doesn’t go very far these days, but a certain ninepence belonging to S. G. Holland (Opposition, Christchurch North) practically refused to move at all. He was anxious to send this sum away to Australia to get some publication in which he was interested, but found that ninepence is not allowed to stray out of the country in a lump sum. The best he could do was to get sixpence in Australian stamps. He recounted his. difficulties during the Financial Debate to a House that has been nonchalantly talking about millions for the best part of two weeks. The House was not unmoved. Inscrutable The orthodox nature of the Budget proposals has given*the Opposition an excuse for making a certain amount of political capital out of the alleged " left wing" of the Labour Party in Parliament, but mention of it usually brings only smiles to the faces of Government members. As the reputed leader of this section, J. A. Lee (Grey Lynn) has been singled out for special reference on more than one occasion, but Mr. Lee’s smile is even more inscrutable than the smiles of his colleagues. So far it has been rather a one-sided game, with the Opposition "bouncing the ball." The Public Works Bill The fact that nearly £24,000,000 is to be spent on public works this year

has focused attention in the House on the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple). By certain members of the Opposition-Mr. Hargest, for example, and Mr. Jull-he is labelled the "strong man" of Cabinet when it comes to spending money. But he has a staunch champion in Mr. Meachen, Government member for Marlborough, who is Mr. Semple’s right-hand man on the public works side, and enjoys almost UnderSecretarial status without having the title. Legislative Council With the House of Representatives not providing it with any business, the Legislative Council has been taking a holiday since July 21, when it beat the Lower House to the wind-up of the Address-in-Reply debate by a couple of weeks. At the moment it has little before it on the Order Paper, and unless something unusual happens in the meantime, it will face the prospect of another adjournment when it does resume. Will Tenacity Win? The only Bill before the Council is the Alsatian Dog Bill, sponsored by the Hon. C. J. Carrington. For eight years this measure has passed the Legislative Council, where it has originated, for eight years it has been sent to the House of Representatives, and for eight years the House of Representatives has simply done nothing about it. Still, tenacity sometimes wins in the end (as Daylight Saving proves). " Boulogney " A proposal that Wanganui’s harbour should have another £25,000 spent on it met with some objection from the Opposition when J. B. F. Cotterill (Government, Wanganui) introduced his Bill. To W. J. Polson (Opposition, Stratford) the harbour is merely a "sink for money." But when he mentioned what it had cost at Boulogne to check sand drift, someone spoilt his argument, and the House’s composure, by interjecting " Boulogney." Points of View S. G. Holland (Opposition, Christe church North): If I had been giving it a name I might have called it the Ned Kelly Budget, but then Ned Kelly only robbed some of the people. R. M. Macfarlane (Government, Christchurch South): It would be a strange Labour Government that produced a Budget which would have the approval of newspaper editors and the Chambers of Commerce. J. A. Roy (Opposition, Balclutha): It is merely eye-wash to say that the roads and railways are being built for defence. E. P. Meachen (Government, Marlborough): The people look on the Min- ister of Public Works as Public Benefactor No. 1.