PARLIAMENT

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20979, 6 October 1933, Page 12

PARLIAMENT

I iBBEBSS-IN-RJBPLX DEBATE. - -. .... IfPSOOT LABOUR'MOTION DEFEATED %B D* M'DOUGALL LEAVES .THE-. COALITION!' jlfom Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, October 5. Nothing was accomplished by the House ©J to-day, and in the light of the decisive divisions taken yesterday there seemed little ©accuse for the prolongation of the Address-in-Reply debate. Yet that .debate is still not concluded. Mr P. Fraser (Lab., Wellington Central) gave it a new lease of life by moving a further amendment, that in .view of the dissatisfaction with the Government, Parliament should be dissolved and a General Election held. However, subsequent speakers gave little attention to that question, but merely talked generalities, and ®3 the Government is not yet ready with its major legislative proUWpme, extensions of time were freely given. There was a pretence of urgency an the late afternoon, when Labour interjectors urged Mr D. McDougall <&fataura) to let the amendment go to the vote; but the reason for that was that the Maori members desired to leave this evening for Huntly, to attend the tangi for the Maori king. Mr Fraser's amendment was de» I'eated by 46 votes to 27, which was identically the same voting as was registered when Labour's first noconfidence amendment was tested in the division lobbies. Nevertheless, with the House divided three times during the debate, members who had not spoken and several who had previously held the floor stood to their rights, and the debate—by then entirely purposeless—was continued. The forty-sixth speaker in the debate was on his feet when the automatic adjournment was taken at 10.30 p.m. Twenty-two Labour members have spoken so far, leaving jmjy Mr H. G. R. Mason to break his silence. It is expected that the debate will be concluded to-morrow. Ope indication was .given to-day that the routine work of the session is approaching. That was a series of ■lB notices of motion by Ministers for the setting up of select committees. The most interesting feature of today's proceedings was the frank declaration by Mr McDougall that the Government, which he has lately quitted, should go to the country at

«mce» since according to his view it WW evident that it had not the capacity for solving the problems with which the Dominion is confronted. •THE. STATE. FIRE OFFICE DISPOSAL OP PROFITS STRONG .EXCEPTION' TAKEN TO EUCOMMENDATION IFroja Our Parliamentary Beporter.J WELLINGTON, October 5. Strong exception to the recommen«3ttk>n of the National Expenditure Commission, that part of the annual profits of the State Fire Insurance Office be paid into the Consolidated Fund, I is taken by the general manager of! the department, Mr J. H. Jerram, in! hia Minuirf report for 1032, which has been presented to Parliament. | "The final report of the National Saiptnditure Commission makes no taasnplimentary reference to the ofAct," said Mr Jerram; "but I feel it .my duty to dissent most emphatically from the recommendation which was made for the amendment of the State yiro Act to provide for the payment of part of the annual profits into the Consolidated Fund. An amendment having the effect suggested woujd constitute an arbitrary abrogation of the wdating constitution, which makes provision for a return of the surplus profits to the policy-holders by way of rebates, and which was given by the Legislature freely, as an inducement to people to insure with the office, fjttt inducement has been instrumental in attracting and consolidating a large income, and no part of the return due to policy-holders could now be diverted without a breach of faith, if not of contract. Good faith is the essence of an insurance contract, and tne effect of the amendment, as sug9®mm by the commission, might be most serious on the prestige of the efßee."

|«r Jerraxn said it was not to be infemd from his remarks that the of the office had been, or were, the only beneficiaries, fop in S>pwtks the declaration of rebates tmmr Hm provisions of the State Fire Aet reduced all rates. "Ztourance'' companies," he conttauea. "have alwayss followed the stew fire Office, and all payers of ynrnjaua. whether they are insured WW'the State office or not, receive a eosWQiumtis! benefit from ito operations. Also the Consolidated Fund drives a peculiar advantage through tfe© particularly high proportion of incoin* tax which the office pays, and to*- fund is insisted further from time to time, at some financial disadvantage to the office, through investment* to current issues at par, while private companies, mutual or otherwise, purchase stock in the open! market."