ELEVEN BILLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 267, 10 November 1934, Page 13

ELEVEN BILLS.

PARLIAMENT'S RUSH. AGRICULTURAL CONTROL. POWERS Or COMMISSION. XBy Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. In a last-minute rush the House of Representatives passed 11 bills to-day, and these were all dealt with at intervals by the Legislative Council, which sat until a late hour to-night. The net result was that after a formal sitting of the House to-morrow morning the legislative decks will be cleared until February next, when the session will be resumed. The principal business then will be the passage of a bill to set up the National Mortgage Corporation, a proposal which is an integral part of the Government's plan for relieving the farmers, particularly those engaged in the dairy industry. Only one bill commanded any attention in the House to-day, and that Was the Agriculture (Emergency Powers) Bill, which sets up a supreme body t° be known as the Executive Commission of Agriculture to deal with everything that is produced on the farms- of the Dominion. Objections to the absolute power given to the commission were met by the Government by placing the Minister of Agriculture in the position of chairman of this commission, which will now comprise four persons. It had teen proposed to drop the provision demanding the whole time and attention of members of the commission to be given to its business, but insistent demands from members, headed by Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, resulted in this clause being reinstated in the bill.

The Opposition opposed the passage •f the measure on the grounds that while organisation was needed and was desirable, the first essential was financial

relief for the farmers. To this the Government reply was that the organisation was necessary so that the amount of relief could be gauged. Other Bills Quickly Passed. ' The Cinematograph Films Amendment, providing for a set of contract conditions for the hiring of picture films, was passed with very little ado, and so were the Noxious Weeds Amendment, and the three "washing-up" bills, Lands, Local and Native, which caused no comment whatever. Five local bills, four of them validation measures, and the fifth practically a Government measure, -went flying through.