PARLIAMENTS SESSION

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28268, 4 May 1957, Page 10

PARLIAMENTS SESSION

House To Meet On June 11

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 3.

Parliament will assemble on Tuesday, June 11, approximately one week before the Prime Minister (Mr Holland) leaves for the British Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference, opening in London on June 26.

Parliament was prorogued until June 6, before the decision to hold a Prime Ministers’ conference was made. June 26 was then the planned opening date, but has been put forward to enable the House to meet before the Prime Minister leaves for London. The formal opening of the session will be followed immediately by a debate on international affairs, so that Mr Holland can be informed of the views of Parliament before he goes to London.

The session itself is not expected to be long as this is election year. The legislative programme is light and the expectation is that both parties will be glad to adjourn early in October to take part in the election campaign.

• Shorter Session This will mean that Parliament will sit for about four months this year instead of the six months which its sittings would be expected to occupy in an ordinary year. The debate on international affairs, lasting about one week, will be followed by the Address-in-Reply debate, which will itself take two to three weeks.

The Budget now being prepared by the Minister of Finance (Mr J. T. Watts) will not be presented while Mr Holland is out of the country.

The Prime Minister is expected back in mid-July. His absence will therefore not affect materially the date of the presentation of the Budget, which will be late July or early August. The later date is more likely in view of the particularly careful attention which will be given to provisions in an election year. The Budget debate will last one mohth, and the House can be relied on to dispatch the rest of its business, speedily.