Reference In House

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29250, 7 July 1960, Page 14

Reference In House

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 6. Government members jeered in the House of Representatives today when Mr J. R. Hanan (Opposition, Invercargill) asked the Prime Minister (Mr Nash) at question time whether, in view of the reported statement by the former Auditor-General (Mr C. R. J. Atkin) that he had been approached on numerous occasions by the present Prime Minister when he was in Opposition, he would now apologise to Mr J. R. Marshall, Deputy-Leader of the Opposition, for doing exactly the same thing. The Prime Minister retorted that Mr Hanan should make sure the report quoted was correct Mr J. T. Watts (Opposition, Fendalton): You used to ring up the Treasury when I was Minister of Finance. Mr Nash: That’s not true. -

Mr Watts: You know it is true. In the Address-in-Reply debate later, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Holloway) said the argument on the Audi-tor-General’s report had been started by the Opposition as a telling point, but it had not achieved the effect it had hoped. “So I think the best thing to do is leave it there,” he said. He added: “The Government must be able to adjust these tariffs from time to time.”