THE WEEK IN THE HOUSE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25924, 3 October 1949, Page 6

THE WEEK IN THE HOUSE

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BUSY SESSION NEARS END DISCUSSION ON LINCOLN COLLEGE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, October 2. With an ever-anxious eye on the calendar, the House of Representatives made good progress last week in what is generally expected to have been the fourth last week of a busy session. Two of the four sitting days were spent on the Estimates, and such good time was made that even the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) was moved to congratulate the House on the progress made. A sign of the anxiety which members have to make certain that they will finish the session on or before October 21 was the action of the Opposition to allow to pass on Thursday without discussion the Imprest Supply Bill, which voted one month's supply authority representing £7.877,500. Usually the Opposition makes the most of the chance an Imprest Supply Bill gives to discuss any subject it chooses —preferably controversial. On Thursday the bill went straight through. Great emphasis was again given this week to local bills, on which the House has spent many busy and fruitful days this session. On its third appearance, the Lyttelton Harbour Loan Bill, authorising £BO.OOO for a new building for watersiders to be borrowed by the board (to be repaid by a cargo levy), went through, but not without a division, in which Opposition members, who had been critical of the amount of money to be spent, sought to have the sum reduced to £50,000 —but failed. Lincoln College Bill Another Canterbury matter whicn was debated at length was the bill which changes the constitution of Canterbury Agricultural College at Lincoln—a change designed mostly to make the college representative of ail the South Island and not Canterbury alone. The point was made by Mr W. A. Bodkin (Opposition, Central Otago) that while it did make the Parliamentary representation on the board cover the whole of the South Island, the new measure also took away from Canterbury its own special representation. Over a period of many years. Canterbury had been responsible for much of the maintenance of the college. Mr J. K. McAlpine (Opposition, Selwyn) went further, and claimed that just as the Empire Games had been stolen and the School of Forestry filched, so also was Canterbury now going to lose its agricultural college, which would become a South Island rather than a provincial institution—although the province had fostered it, given it its name and done much to support it. Both Mr McAlpine and Mr T. P. Shand (Opposition, Marlborough) spoke strongly in favour of referring the bill back to the committee. Their opinions, however, were not those of the Opposition’s own representatives on the Education Committee. The Estimates of the Minister of Works (Mr Semple) gave the Opposition a further chance of developing its argument—heard many times in the House in the last three sessions —that the Government had gambled in its power schemes on the weather remaining favourable for the supply. Most of the Opposition’s points were made by Mr W. S. Goosman (Piako), who has spent much time studying the North Island's power problems, and claims that if there is a severe drought in the years between now and 1955 the north will face a severe supply crisis. Not quite so much was heard of the South Island’s power position, although Mr Bodkin sought and gained an assurance that the expert arriving here this week to look over the Government's hydro-electric construction plans will cast a careful eye over the proposed foundation for the Wanaka dam in the Roxburgh Gorge scheme. Again during the discussion on Mr Semple’s Estimates, there flared up the complaint so frequently heard before that State houses are being occupied by many persons earning big incomes, who could quite well be expected to finance the building of their own homes. Tributes to Mr Downic Stewart The House will begin the coming week at a more leisurely pace. On Tuesday, tributes will be paid to the .services given his country by Mr Downie Stewart, who had many close personal friends among the older members of the House, and whose advice and judgment were keenly respected by the Government in the years after his resignation from high office. It is regarded as likely that the House will adjourn for the day after the tributes have been paid.