PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 28 August 1926, Page 11

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

A VALUABLE COMMISSION. BUBAL CREDITS . COST £6149: ■" COULD. HAVE BEEN LOOKED UP IN LIBRARY." . - ■' (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday.; Someone--had. referred in the: House of Representatives to the Rural Credits Commisinon as a very valuable one. Mr. M. J. Savage (Auckland West), from the Opposition benches, cordially agreed' it was very valuable. It cost, he said, £6149 i and the ground covered could have, been looked up in the public library. Mr. R. W. Smith (Waimarino) It, will satisfy the people of New Zealand that they nave been looked after well. Mr. Savage added that not 3 per cent of the public knew what. was in the report. Not 20 per .cent, of members were better informed either, vhile he. though a. member of the special committee appointed .to consider the report; had not had time to go through it in the three days allocated to this business when he had to attend other committees and the work of Parliament. . The Bar Removed. The doubt regarding the Waimakariri River Improvement and Hauraki Plains Bills, which caused them to be referred; to the joint committee on the bills,- has been. removed, the committee reporting, to the House that both are public bills.' They- will, therefore, be entitled to' proceed. '• Auckland Water Board Bill. * The Mayor of Auckland, Mr.- G. Boil-, don, and ■ the* city engineer, Mr. W. E. Bush', while in Wellington to-day, waited on the Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, and asked that since the Government had promised to set up a 'commission to go into the merits of the water supplies in and around Auckland; the Auckland Provincial Water Board! Bill should not be passed until the com-, mission had eat and presented its report. It is understood the Health Department is in agreement with this view. There has been no discussion upon' the bill in the House of Representatives,: but as the session is nearing its-end, any measure of opposition will certainly result in the measure being shelved. It has passed two select committees with slight amendments, but has not yet .been,read,a second.time. . .. Governor-General Returns Bills. The , Government has adopted a rather unusual procedure to secure certain necessary amendments in bills that have passed both Houses of Parliament. In the early hours of this* morning three messages were received by the House of Representatives from the Governor-General, returning three bills which had been submitted for his assent and proposing amendments to them. With regard to the first, the Oil in Territorial Waters Bill, It was explained that the amendments were some which bad been made in the Legislative-Conn-. ciL but which were an infringement, of the privileges of the House and which had to receive the approval of the latter before .they could be sanctioned. ■ , ,■ '

Another message relating to the. National Provident Fund Amendment Bill was intended to enable certain verbal errors to be corrected. *

Respecting the remaining message which concerned' the Government Railways Bill, Mr. Coates stated that as the original bill had been merely a consolidating, measure, it had not been possible to introduce amends to. the law after it had left the House.

All the amendments were approved and were referred to the Legislative Council. '

At this afternoon's sitting amendments to the Family Allowances Bill and the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Bill were brought down by the same means and approved by the House. Thdfce .relating to family allowances provided for the inclusion in the scheme of a child which is a member of a household, but;.has'not-been formally adopted;'for the deduction of friendly society payments f and the value of the family home in the calculation of income.

"*' There .was only one amendment to the Hospitals and ; Charitable 'Institutions Bill, making it operative on January 1! instead of April I next.