BATTLE OF TACTICS IN DEBATE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 280, 7 September 1946, Page 6

BATTLE OF TACTICS IN DEBATE

BOTH SIDES PROBABLY SATISFIED 45 SPEAKERS ON NINE DAYS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 6. Probably neither the Government nor the Opposition feels it lost out in the battle of tactics leading up to the somewhat dramatic ending of the financial debate in the House this afternoon. It was expected that the debate would extend over a period of about four weeks. It extended over three weeks, although within that period it actually engaged the attention of members on no more than nine sitting days—including the Rt. Lion. W. Nash in reply. Forty-five members took part in the debate—24 from the Government side and 21 Opposition. With this, .the last major debate of the session out of the way, the House will now be able to concentrate on the departmental estimates and the balance of legislation. ,

It became evident this morning that the. Opposition had no intention of continuing to carry out the practice of putting up a speaker after each Government member. The position was that if the Government desired the debate to be carried on, it would have to provide speakers all day. It might have been that if this were done the Opposition may have reentered the debate next week, particularly if there were opportunities of speaking at night. There was always the possibility that if Mr Nash got up to reply an Opposition member would have risen to prevent the debate ending to-day, but after two Government speakers- had spoken and Mr Nash rose in his place to reply there was no challenge from the Opposition and all speculation was dissipated. .

No More Speakers

After ■ the Hon. W. E. Parry fiad said that since he had been in the House there, had been the sporting principle of putting up man for man in first-class debates, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Hollahd) appeared to provide the key to the Opposition tactics when lie stated that if that course continued to be followed the Government would be left with 10 speakers to finish off the debate. Later Mr Holland said there was no breakdown of the debate. The Opposition ran run out of speakers. This statement by Mr Holland meant that some prominent members of the Opposition Apparently had decided not to speak, because not all members of the Opposition had taken part in the debate. For his reply, Mr Nash, as a result of the Opposition close-down, was 'denied the advantage of speaking at night, which, since the advent of the broadcasting of proceedings, is sought by members of the respective parties. On the other hand, from the Government point of view, the way was cleared for the Estimates and the Bills to be dealt with.

The main event of interest during tire week was the presentation of the long-awaited report of the Royal Commission on the'Licensing Laws. Interest now centres in the procedure likely to be adopted by the Government following up the recommendations—many of them far-reaching—made by the Commission.

Study Required

It seems hardly likely that there will he time to do much about them this session. Members will want to make a study of the report, which is so voluminous that printing will take some time. Neither the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) nor Mr Holland has yet given any indication officially of his reaction to the report and probably they will not until there lias been time for a careful study of it, . As far as the financial debate is concerned, the survey made by Air W. S. Goosman (National, Waitomo) of electric power prospects in the North Island, and his suggestion that in the interests of industry, particularly, auxiliary oil-burning plant, was necessary to provide a margin of safety during' the next few years attracted a good deal of attention. With much of what Mr Goosman had said the Minister of Works (the Hon. R. Semple) did not find fault, and he agreed with the desirability of endeavouring to create a reserve, but he mentioned that because of the war and conditions arising from the war, it had not been possible to achieve that. Important amendments have been made by the Statutes Revision Committee to the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Amendment Bill, and in the amended form it seems to have overcome the principal objection raised by the Opposition on its introduction, that the clause as originally drawn with the object of stopping under-the-counter payments in excess of the fixed prices for properties would reward wrongdoers and encourage blackmail.