THE SESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 226, 23 September 1932, Page 6

THE SESSION.

» If not very informative, the Speech from the Throne yesterday was commendably brief. As usual, it told members and the country what they knew or had surmised already, and at the end referred in a few words to the session's programme. The nation will note with satisfaction the signs of Ministerial confidence displayed in the Speech. The outline of the programme is as bare as can be, but if Parliament is to grapple seriously with rating on urban farm lands, and amendment of laws relating to Customs, banking, superannuation, native lands, hospitals and municipalities, it will' have plenty to do. There are two notable omissions from the list. Nothing is said about unemployment legisla- j tion, but this may be a good thing, for the present powers of the Government are probably quite sufficient if they are exercised with wisdom. There is no mention of the intention to make permanent the extension of Parliament's life to four years, and one hopes there is a possibility that Mr. Forbes and his colleagues will think better of this. It is not only that the change is not warranted without clear consultation of the people; it is that the Government and Parliament should be thinking just now of more important things. For Parliament to be worrying to-day about the length of its life is rather like a man beset with difficulties spending time and energy deciding where he will spend a holiday three years hence. There is to be the inevitable motion of no-confidence by the Labour Party. It has, of course, no prospect of success, and nobody knows this better than Mr. Holland and his colleagues, but it is part of the ritual expected by, or believed to be due to, Labour's following. The party in the House is talking to the party, and all possible recruits, in the country, but everybody has tQ, pay a share of the cost of this waste of time.