PARLIAMENTARY DAY

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25588, 1 September 1948, Page 6

PARLIAMENTARY DAY

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, August 31. The continuation of the Budget debate in the House of Representatives was the main feature of Parliament’s work to-day. Interest was taken at question time in a request by Mr S.. W. Smith (Opposition, Hobson) for information about the securing of a building section in the Tamaki district by an unnamed member of Parliament. Speakers to-day were Messrs P. Kearins (Government, Waimarino), T. L. Macdonald (Opposition, Wallace), M. Moohan (Government. Petone), W. A. Bodkin (Opposition, Central Otago), Ormond Wilson (Government, Palmerston North), and W. H. Gillespie (Opposition, Hurunui) Mr Gillespie concentrated on farming problems, making special reference to the difficult position through the change in the exchange rate of high-country farmers dependent on the sale of their wool. He was called to order when he said the Government had been unfortunate in its choice of Ministers of Agriculture and referred to the post as that of an office boy or rubber stamp. He had to withdraw the phrase rubber stamp. In the Legislative Council Mr W. Grounds (North Auckland), a former chairman of the Dairy Board, said he considered the present time a heavensent opportunity for the return of exchange to sterling parity because of increasing overseas prices “I would like to commend the mind, whosever it was, that decided ‘Now is the day and now is the hour,’ ” said Mr Grounds. The House will get Ministers’ replies to questions to-morrow afternoon and will go on with the Budget debate in the evening.