WORK FOR HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 281, 22 August 1940, Page 11

WORK FOR HOUSE

Secret Session Today

THIRD SINCE MAX

The House of Representatives will meet in secret session again today, for the third time since it assembled late in May. When the House sat yesterday after, an adjournment of three weeks, the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, said that by tomorrow the House should have a programme of work- before it.

“The War Cabinet and the general Cabinet are Of the opinion that, should the members so decide, it might be desirable to have another secret session tomorrow,” Mr. Fraser said. Mr. Lee (Democratic Labour, Grey Lynn): Hear, hear. There should be at least a statement from yourself. Mr. Fraser: We are anxious to put as full information as possible before the House. We might meet at 2.30 o’clock tomorrow afternoon and sit till it is completed, instead of taking two days. By Friday we should have some Bills back from committees, and a programme of work in front of us.

REPAYMENT OF LOANS

Use Of Sterling Funds By City Council

DEBTS OF LOCAL BODIES Reasons why the Government had granted permission to the Wellington City Council to “commandeer” £1,124,900 of sterling funds in time of war to repay a loan in London were sought by Mr. Gordon (Opposition, Rangitikei) in an urgent question he asked the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash. It was understood, said Mr. Gordon, that these funds were urgently required for the Government’s own purposes to relieve the acute needs of both war and civil organization. “The Wellington City Council cannot commandeer any funds, nor can any other council,” said Mr. Nash in reply. “How else than in sterling funds can the debts of the local bodies of the Dominion be repaid when the money is borrowed in sterling? All the Government has done is to follow the request of the United Kingdom that local body loans in England should be repaid. The Government is finding the necessary sterling funds to enable the commitments of the Dominion, through the local bodies, to be paid when they become due.” Mr. Osborne (Government, Onehunga): They are asking us to repudiate, are they? “This money becomes due during the coming year,” Mr. Nash continued. “The Government, out of the funds built up in London, has arranged to have this money repaid in accordant- 0 with a standard procedure for the repayment of debt. Other local bodies with money falling due will be able to obtain sterling to repay it and thus keep the name of the Dominion good in financial circles in London.”