The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1932. THE SESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 224, 21 September 1932, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1932. THE SESSION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance, And the good that we can da.

There is an abundance of work scheduled for the session -of Parliament that opens to-morrow. If it is objected that to expect members to get to work without delay would be the triumph of hope over experience, one may reply that hope springs eternal. At any rate, it is certain that the country is less than .ever in the mood for tolerating waste of time in manoeuvring for party or personal advantage. Finance is always the ruling consideration in a session, and this year it will be more so than ever. Tentative plans for the financial year were laid in the first session, and it will remain for the Government to state how revenue and expenditure in the intervening period have affected their estimates, and -what they propose to do in regard to taxation and economy. The second report of the National Economy Commission will be presented with the Budget, and it should be a highly important document, more valuable than the first in that it may be expected to include a closer examination of the working of State departments. The Prime Minister's references to taxation have been hopeful. On the other hand, the Unemployment Board has acted as if it was short of money, and the public conscience cannot help feeling uneasy about a rate of sustenance as low as seven and sixpence a week.

Unemployment relief, indeed, will loom large* during the session. The first thing for the Government to do is to give out full details of the income and expenditure of the Board so that the public may see how much finance it is furnishing and how this is being spent. Members should impress upon the Government the need for better organisation of relief measures and for planning public works expenditure on national lines. The Government and the Board have done a great deal to cope with unemployment, but their methods are still too haphazard and unimaginative, and the productive return for all the money spent is less than it might be. Members however, should reflect that nothing is easier than destructive criticism of unemployment relief policy and methods. What are needed are constructive ideas and honest facing of facts.

The Ottawa agreement will come up for ratification, and the Government's tariff concessions to Britain may contain some surprises. What is still more important is the Government's intention about future control of the tariff. Now that we have admitted the British manufacturer into partnership, so to speak, it is all the more necessary that adjustment of the tariff should be in the hands of a non-political independent body whose composition would inspire confidence. Other questions of importance that are expected to be raised are the state of the superannuation funds, action in regard to which is urgent; and no doubt there will be some vigorous comments on the working of the amendment to the Arbitration Act. The Government's proposal to make permanent the four-year term for Parliament's life is objectionable not because there is nothing to be said for four-year Parliaments, but because this is not the time to bring it forward. One should not change rules in the middle of a game.