SIX MAIDEN SPEECHES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25227, 4 July 1947, Page 8

SIX MAIDEN SPEECHES

QUIET DAY IN THE HOUSE

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.! WELLINGTON, July 3. The making of six maiden speeches was the feature of the continuation of the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives *A-day. For that reason the day was moderately quiet for. by tradition, new members are not subject to the same volume of interjections as older members. The most notable of the new members was the Minister of Labour (Mr A. McLagan). who had been heard in the Legislative Council in recent sessions. By common consent the address of Mr T. P. Shand (Opposition, Marlborough) was warmly . applauded. Dealing mostly with local problems, Mr Shand many times had a volume of appreciation from crowded benches. He devoted much time to rehabilitation, a subject on which as a returned serviceman himself he was qualified to speak. He made a plea that to avoid the present trouble of inducing vendors to sell to servicemen the difference in purchase prices might be made up by taxation, which, he said, all of the people would be glad to pay. Mr Shand took issue with the mover of the motion, Mr J. Mathison (Government. Avon) on whether poverty had disappeared from New Zealand. What was it but poverty, Mr Shand asked, when a man, his wife and four children had to live in one room, even if there was plenty of money jingling in their pockets?

Other maiden speeches were made by Messrs T. E. Skinner (Government, Tamaki), D. M. Rae (Opposition, Parnell). P. Kearins (Government, Waimarino), and W. H. Fortune (Opposition, Eden). All of them were applauded.