HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 58, 6 September 1917, Page 8

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

.The House met at 2.30 p.m. * . Further "petitions were presented praying the, Government to devise means ito decrease the cost oi living. Mr. J. C. Thomson g_ave notice to ask the Government if it will set. up a board to enquire into the merits of all inventions relating ito .the war. i Notice was given by Mr. J. 'Vigor Brown to ask the Government if it will insist on any applicant for employment on wharves. producing naturalisation papers.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, in answer to Mr. Poole,,said that it was not considered necessary to hold an.enquiry into a fire on an oversea vessel. The ship was on fire when she reached port, and it was considered that it was due to spontaneous combusion in coal shipped either in England or the United States— probably the latter. ' i •

Mr. Glover referred to the case of thf woman whose sons are at the front and who, he: had stated, had the bailiffs in her house because of her inability to pay £8 9s rent. If. he had done any wrong to Mr. Hannan. the landlord, he only hoped he would be forgiven. What he had said had been said under a misapprehension. .

Sir Joseph Ward, answering a question, said that the bonus to Public Servants would „be paid as soon as the Supplementary Estimates were prepared, which would be in a week or ten days. Sir James Allen stated' that he hoped the Second Division would not be called up until December or January, after combing out the First Division rejects. The first ballot would ■'.. take place about October, but no one would be called up until three months after he had been balloted.

The Hon. G. W. Russell produced a return showing that up to 31st March '£2,609,186 had been collected by patriotic societies, and that other contribit tioris brought the total up to £3,468,818. He thought.that was a record of which the Government might be justly proud. (Hear, hear.)

(Left sitting.)