WAR MEMORIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 190, 13 August 1928, Page 7

WAR MEMORIAL.

BILL UNLIKELY TO PASS. A MANDATORY CLAUSE. OPPOSITION EXPECTED. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. It is extremely doubtful that Um Auckland War Memorial Museum Maintenance Bill will reach the Statute Book this session, since the measure would make it mandatory upon local bodies of the metropolitan area to contribute £6000 annually towards the support of the museum. This mandatory clause in the bill was something of a surprise, since it had been thought that the measure would do nothing more than make contributions permissive. Had such bean the case, the bill would probably have gone through without opposition. However, in its present form, it is objected to by some members, and Mr. A. Harris (Waitemata) informed the "Star's" Parliamentary reporter to-day that he would certainly make an attempt to have the mandatory clause altered when the bill reached the committee stage. The clause, he said, should make contributions voluntary.

Any local bill to which there is opposition has little chance of getting through the House, because, with the big press of business on the Order Paper, sufficient time cannot be allowed for its discussion. A case in point was the Auckland Water Board Bin, which was defeated in 1926 because some Auckland members stonewalled it the whole of one Saturday afternoon.