PERSONALITIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 173, 24 July 1941, Page 4

PERSONALITIES

BY-ELECTION ECHOES

MR. OSBORNE AND MR. LEE

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Echoes of the recent Waitemata by-election were heard in the House of Representatives last evening when Mr. Lee (Democratic Labour, Grey Lynn) and Mr. Osborne (Government, Onehunga) ventilated personal differences.

Mr. Lee said he supposed he had better say a word about the byelection, otherwise when he sat down he would be chided for refusing to face up to the fact "that my candidate, our candidate," had failed. He thought the House would agree that he was no squealer. He could take his gruel, he thought, and more was the pity that the contest showed a definite swing towards the Nationalist party. He said more the pity because he did not think the Nationalist party had a constructive idea. He did not think they were conscious of how to handle the great difficulties confronting the country.

Mr. Osborne, after seeking Mr. Speaker's guidance as to whether he would be in order in referring to public statements made by Mr. Barnard in his capacity as member for Napier, and being assured that he would, devoted himself to an exchange of personalities with Mr. Lee, to a review of correspondence which he claimed to have sent to Mr. Lee and which Mr. Lee denied receiving, and to aspects of the Waitemata by-election campaign.

Mr. Osborne was called to order on several occasions for the use of unparliamentary language. Mr. Osborne also referred to the part played in the campaign by the member for Napier and to the circumstances under which Mr. Lee and Mr. Barnard had severed their connection with the official Labour party. He had not completed his speech when the House adjourned at 10.30, but before then members of the Opposition were becoming restive and calling for references to the Budget.