PARLIAMENT NELSON RAILWAY BILL PASSED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29270, 30 July 1960, Page 14

PARLIAMENT NELSON RAILWAY BILL PASSED

23 Divisions Taken In 25V2-Hour Sitting

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 29. The House of Representatives this afternoon passed the Nelson Railway Authorisation Bill after the first all-night sitting this session.

The bill was expected to be given Royal Assent by the Governor-General (Lord Cobham) tonight.

In the 25f-hour debate 23 divisions were taken. The Government won each by one vote—3 B-37.

The Prime Minister (Mr Nash) applied the closure seven times to end the debate on different stages of the bill.

Weary members looked relieved when the bill was eventually passed at 4.5 , p.m. Many dozed off during the day. Two meal breaks were taken during the debate, one last evening and another for lunch today.

Mr Nash smiled broadly when the final vote was announced.

The House sat continuously from 7.30 p.m. last night till 1 p.m. today when it adjourned for lunch. There was no adjournment for breakfast this morning. As the early morning sun filtered into the chamber, jaded, unshaven members went off in twos and threes to eat and wash while their colleagues kept talking on the bill.

Mr Nash yesterday had standing orders suspended so the bill could be passed in one sitting. This move was strongly attacked by the Opposition who criticised Mr Nash for interrupting the Budget debate to get the bill passed. The bill was given a second reading at 2.20 a.m. today and members spent the early hours of this morning on the committee stage.

Most members curled up in their seats and went to sleep until it was their turn to speak—or until the division bells shrilly called them to vote. Mr J. T. Watts (Opposition, Fendalton) stretched out on his seat and covered himself with two sheets of newspaper. Several Cabinet Ministers were among the soundest sleepers. Mr Nash worked at letters and official papers throughout the night. It was not till after the morning paper arrived at 5.50 a.m. that he had a brief respite from work.

Mr D. J. Eyre (Opposition, North Shore) woke some sleeping members at one stage when he loudly declared that the Nelson railway should be called “Walter’s last ride.” “The Government would build a luna park with a scenic railway if it thought it could get a few votes,” Mr Eyre said. When Mr Nash moved the closure at 5.27 a.m. Mr Eyre called out: “Good old Khrushchev. You learned a lot in Moscow.” At 6.30 a.m. 20 of the 32 Opposition members in chamber were asleep. So were 11 of the 20 Government members. Amendments Defeated The Government defeated three proposed Opposition amendments to the bill in the committee stage. The amendments were aimed at: (1) ’ Postponing work on the railway till after the election. (2) Not spending monf-y on the railway till the final route was settled. (3) Enabling a ramp to be built at Nelson so fie Cook Strait roadrail ferry could call there. The Chairman of Committees (Mr R. A. Kegling) refused to accept another Opposition amendment that a clause be inserted in the bill validating work the Opposition claims has already been done illegally on the railway. Mr W. B. Tennent (Opposition, Manr.wntu) criticised Government members for saying nothing in the debate about the Nelson cotton mill project “It is obvious the cotton mill has died a natural death, as we knew it would,” he said. The house moved put of committee at 8.30 a.m. and reported the bill back without amendment. The debate on the committee’s report went on until 10.52 a.m. when Mr Nash again moved the closure. The Minister of Works (Mr Watt) who was -in charge of the bill, then moved the bill’s third reading which was debated till Mr Nash finally moved the closure at 3.50-p.m. The bill then got its third reading. The House will continue the Budget debate on Tuesday.