THE DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 32, 7 August 1923, Page 7

THE DAY IN PARLIAMENT

A suitable motion expressive of regret at the death of President Harding was moved by the Prime Minister, when the House of Representatives met yesterday. It was supported by Messrs,. Wilford, Holland, and Isitt, all the speeches indicating a very sincere appreciation of the high calibre of the head of the American Administration, particularly of his efforts to create international peace and goodwill. The House for the second time adjourned for a. brief period before going on with the business of the day. The Government continues to present as many Departmental reports as possible each afternoon, and among them yesterday was the Education Report, which, however, did not.reach the table, because it Mas "talked out" by reason of a side issue. Mr. R. A. Wright, from the Government benches, made a suggestion that Auckland appeared to be getting tha lion's share of educational expenditure, the reason being that all the important! spending ■ departments of the Government were in the hands of Auckland Ministers.' Of course, the Opposition was quick to follow the lead given from behind the Government benches, Mr. Forbes quite naturally supporting this criticism wth great heartiness, putting in an even stronger plea for the South Island, which, he said, had suffered a serious loss in the way of friends afc Court by what he euphemistically termed "a little misunderstanding with, the electors at Oamaru.'A The Prime Minister appeared to be taking this discussion very seriously, judging b y the promptitude with which he endeavoured to correct any wrong impressions regarding _ the geographical balance in the Cabinet. Mr. Massey quoted rather impressive figures of expenditure to show, that the Government, whatever its personnel, tried to do justice to all parts of the country. But, all this was taking time, and the result was that' the Education Report was "talked out." The evening sitting was devoted- to thesecond reading discussion of the War Pensions Bill. As the report of the ■Koyal Commission on this subject, dated 16th October, 1922, had only been presented to Parliament that afternoon, members were ignorant of its contents and the discussion, on the Bill was probably more critical than would otherwise have been the case had the House been conversant with the recommendations made for improving the pensions system Most of these have been adopted by the Government in the Bill. The discussion ended at 12.40 a.m. with tliei second reading of the Bill. '