PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 162, 11 July 1925, Page 13

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

NOTES FROM THE GALLERY. (By Telegraph—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The Übiquitous Motor. Railwaymen are no longer satisfied with tlie hand-warked jigger. They want to move with the times per medium of the motor. In the House today Mr. Langstone (Waimarino) intimated his intention of asking the Minister whether the Eailway Department would provide permanent-way maintenance men with motor jiggers to take them to and from work. Some lived miles from the job, and the pre-* sent means of conveyance, hand-worked jiggers, was too slow. Penalised for Improvements. Mr. Langstone (Waimarino) to-day informed the House that many soldier settlers had been penalised for improving their properties, in this way, that they had been refused reductions by the Revaluations Board because their improvements sustained the Government mortgages. Many of the best soldier settlers had not received any concession, and felt that they had been penalised for their industry. Mr. Langstone asked the Government to investigate the matter and see that these men were equitably treated. Level Crossings. The Government recognises the danger, but blames the public. Has ' the Prime Minister read the account of the accident at Napier, wherein a char-a-banc was cut in two at a level crossing and a number of children injured? asked Mr. Mcllvride (Napier) in the House of Representatives to-day. Will the Minister make a statement of what the Department is doing to overcome the crossing danger? The Prime Minister, replying as Minister of Railways, said a certain amount of money had been set aside out of railway improvement moneys for the purpose of overcoming some of the danger of level crossings. He was afraid it was impracticable to get rid of all level crossings in the near future as there was not enough money at his disposal to do so. He would make inquiries into the Napier accident, but knew the spot, and thought it an extraordinary thing that an accident should happen there, as there was a clear view of the line on both sides. In the meantime he would ask the public to use all care, take no' risk, and obey the notices which told them to "stop." If the pubhe stopped, looked and listened, it would do away with 99 per cent of the accidents. A Case of Trusting. Even at midnight Labourites in the House were still engaged in applying caustic to the feelings of the member for Nelson, who perversely took it as a compliment, as showing how far he differed from the extremists. Mr. Lysnar, who was watching things.- got in the way of the brickbats. Mr. Holland had suggested that nobody except Mr. Atmore would be stupid enough to say that the Labour party stood for the break-up of the British Empire. What it wanted was to create a commonwealth of nations. Mr: Lysnar: I would not trust you. Mr. Holland: I have a recollection that the bank would not trust the hon. gentleman. (Laughter.) Housing in Wellington. Auckland is not the only city of New Zealand in which the housing problem is a cause of deep concern. Mr. McKeen informed the House of several cases of hardship in Wellington. In one tiny tenement, he said, the father, mother, four children and a lady friend who helped the mother after the latter's illness all slept in a "bedroom" 6ft by 6ft. For this "house" they paid a rent of 25/ a week. In another home the total floor space measured 30ft by 10ft. There were five children, the eldest eight years of age. The rent of this place was 12/ It was a rotten dilapidated building, and the owner wanted to demolish it, but the people refused to leave unless they could get another place at a suitable rent. Other people were found to be living in sheds on sections they had purchased in the hope of getting money from the State Advances Department to build. They had neither bath nor water. Since these eases had been brought under the notice of the Government, the hon. member believed something had been done to push their applications through the State Advances Department. Two days ago he had visited a house of eleven rooms wherein four married couples with children, three young women and one young man all used the same bathroom and lavatory and the same conveniences for cooking. In another place a washhouse had been turned into a bedroom and a ■bathroom, and at times "the stink nearly drove the people out of the place." This was within five minutes of Parliament House! A Personal Pleasantry. Mr. Atmore had made slighting reference to some members being born outside New Zealand. "The hon. member tor Nelson, who is always seeking to impress the House with his cleverness, was no doubt wonderfully clever to have selected New Zealand, and particularly Nelson, as his birthplace," said Mr Fraser a little later. "As for myself", I would rather be born a man in Scotland than a jackass in New Zealand. (Laughter.) But the hon. member is not a criterion of New Zealanders, for the New Zealander, as a rule, is courteous, hospitable, generous and just. It would be unjust for visitors to this country to judge New Zealand by the hon. member for Nelson." Mussolini's Rabbits and Vermin. "A miniature Mussolini, seeing red at every point, showing glimmerings of wishing to don the black shirt," was how Mr. P. Fraser described Mr. Atmore Independent member for Nelson, who had attacked the Labour party. "He sees red and dreams red. Everything he touches turns to blood—and mud," commented Mr. Lee, who went on to say that if Mr. Atmore had gone to the war and charged the Huns with the same fury as he charged the New Zealand Labour .party he would have come back not only with a V.C., but with two or three bars to the V.C. "He knows not the screeching of shells," concluded Mr. Lee. "The only screeching he knows is the disharmony of his own voice as he attacks the Labour party from the safety of Lambton Quay. As for his slur that certain members were not born in New Zealand, well—he was born in New Zealand, and so was I, and am proud of it, but it is true also that reptiles, blackberries, vermin, and other noxious peste are born in New Zealand." (Laughter.)