SLOW MOVEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 75, 28 March 1936, Page 19

SLOW MOVEMENT.

PARLIAMENT'S WORK.

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY PLANS.

MAY end within a week.

(By- Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day.

Parliament is a ponderous machine, which gets' into full speed with great deliberation. Thus it is that, anxious as the Government may be to place some of its most urgent legislation on the statute book, many days must elapse before the House of Representatives produces legislative results. Not that the Opposition proposes to delay the programme. It will for the present take the same receptive and curious attitude of most people, waiting to see exactly how the Government proposes in detail to carry out its plans.

For this reason it may be predicted that the Address-in-Reply debate, often a long talk on almost every political topic which is current, will end within a week. At least the Opposition forces will not be responsible for prolonging discussion, as they are more concerned with future developments than with general discussion of the situation. However, they will not resist the.temptation to remind the new Government that the National Cabinet, by measures which possibly made it unpopular and led to its emphatic defeat, rendered its successors a great service by leaving finances in a. sound position, with a Budget surplus possible at the end of this month. T . •: Labour Party Discipline.Only one contingency may cause the Address-in-Reply debate to run into a second week. All depends on the degree of discipline which the Prime Minister, will impose on his new recruits, who actually outnumber the total 'of Labour members in last Parliament. They have come into new opportunities on the crest of a wave, their election speeches fresh in their minds, and it may be difficult to avoid giving an opportunity to this new battalion to tell the House about the significance of its invasion. Labour party discipline is usually excellent, and this will be a test for It. The Government follows precedent in selecting new members to initiate the Address-in-Reply debate, both Mr. W. J. Lyon (Waitemata) and Mr. W. Anderton (Edan) being due to maTce tlieir maiden speeches in Parliament on this occasion on Tuesday evening. The debate will then be adjourned, and it may be anticipated that the Right Hon. G. W. Forbes will carry on the discussion at the next opportunity. He has called a caucus of the Opposition members for Tuesday to generally discuss plans, and to select a junior whip to assist Mr. H. S. S. Kyle (Riccarton), the senior whip of the party. Mr. Coates' Attitude. Parliamentary onlookers were disposed to think that Mr. Coates was taking an independent course in opposition, because did not leave it to the leader to speak on the non-controversial motions which have so far been discutsed. There is, however, no suggestion

that the two leaders of the late Government are not pulling together in the team. Mr. Coates has his own way of doing things, and it is quite likely that there will be no formal appointment of a deputy leader, for the reason that the exr-Minister of Finance has indicated that he is not disposed to take the position.