DEPUTY LEADER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 124, 27 May 1936, Page 10

DEPUTY LEADER.

IN CHARGE OF HOUSE.

PRIME MINISTER'S ABSENCE,

"INNOCENT LITTLE MEASUHE.'J

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday.

For the first time since the session began the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, was not in his seat when the House of Representatives resumed to-day, and Mr. Fraser, deputy-Leader of the Government, had his first experienoe in charge of the House. Mr. Savage had gone to Hamilton for the opening of the Wai, kato Winter Show, but is due back tomorrow.

The Transport Licensing Amendment Bill, , which occupied the time of the House nearly all of last week, came up for its third reading, but the debate was unusually protracted and 14 speakers, including the Minister (Mr. Semple), took part, the bill being passed finally by the House just before nine o'clock.

The second reading debate on the Shops and Offices Amendment Bill was then begun by the Minister of Labour, Mr. Armstrong, and in his opening sentences he provided an amusing anticlimax from the vigorous debate on the Transport Bill that had just finished.

"I'm sure," said Mr. Armstrong, "that honourable members will bo relieved to know that they are about to enter upon the debate of a non-contentious nature. I'm sure it will be a complete change from what they have i had to put up with in the last day or so."

An Opposition Member: The Transport Bill was a delight. Mr. Armstrong, amidst general laughter, described his bill as an innocent little measure and what might be termed the "third leg in the industrial treble."