GOVERNMENT WHIPS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 253, 22 July 1936, Page 10

GOVERNMENT WHIPS

Messrs. Richards and Thorn

Mr. A. S. Richards, M.P. for Roskill, and Mr. J. Thorn, M.P. for Thames, have been appointed to act as Labour Government Whips. In making this announcement yesterday, the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) pointed out that the two original Whips were absent from New Zealand. They were Mr. W. J. Jordan (Manukau), who had left the previous day for Geneva, where he will represent New Zealand before assuming the position of High Commissioner in London at the end of the year, and Mr. R. McKeen. M.P. for Wellington South, who has been abroad for some time representing the Dominion at the conference of the International Labour Office. ONION INDUSTRY Request For Protection ' Government action to protect oniongrowers from competition from abroad wag sought by Mr. H. S. S. Kyle (Opposition, Riccarton), in a question which he asked in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon. Mr. Kyle referred to the serious menace to the growers of the Dominion from the importation of onions from abroad, and asked the Minister of Agriculture. Hon. W. Lee Martin, whether the Government would adopt such measures as would provide a reasonable protection to the growers, so that they might obtain a fair return for their labour and be in a position similar to the dairy farmers, who were to receive a guaranteed price for thenproduce from August 1. BLACKBERRY MENACE A suggestion that assistance should be given by the Government to settlers on second-class land to enable them to cope w’th the growth of blackberry was contained in notice of a question to the Minister of Agriculture. Hon. W. Lee Martin, given by Mr. E. L. Cullen (Government. Hawke’s Bay) in the /House of Representatives yesterday. “Blackberry,” he said, “is a serious menace on grazing areas. The income of farmers on such areas will not permit of the expenditure necessary for clearing blackberry.”