DEBATE LAUNCHED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 106, 7 May 1942, Page 8

DEBATE LAUNCHED

EMERGENCY BUDGET

EXPENDITURE OF £186,000,000

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

When the full dress debate on New Zealand's emergency war Budget, providing for the expenditure of £186,000,000, was opened in the House of Representatives last night by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, there was a fair attendance of the public, but the galleries were not full.

Mr. Holland said that no small amount of courage had been employed in writing the historic document. In a critical analysis of the figures he said that no one would question the necessity of providing the required money, but he uttered a note of warning that money must not be wasted or spent unwisely. He emphasised the point that the expenditure of £133,000,000 on war requirements should have been submitted to the War" Cabinet together with the Estimates. He said that if the Government had put its house in order it would not now be facing a financial crisis. He advocated a nation-wide efficiency drive to eliminate incompetence and waste.

The only other speaker was the Minister of Supply, Mr. Sullivan, who declared that the forty-hour week had gone overboard by consent of the workers. He said that no country in the world was less in danger of inflation than New Zealand, which had led the way in keeping prices on an even keel.

The first half hour was spent in official business, the onV outstanding feature being a statement by the Attorney-General, Mr. Mason, in reply to an urgent question, that there was no intention to take action against Mr. J. Roberts, president of the New Zealand Labour party, as had been suggested by the Full Court on the occasion of the recent prosecution of the Evening Post and the Standard.

Mrs. Dreaver (Government, Waitemata) gave notice of her intention to introduce a bill providing for women jurors.