THE DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 44, 20 August 1925, Page 5

THE DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Yesterday was private members' day in the House of Representatives, but it will be the last this session, ns from nest Wednesday onwards Government Bills will take precedence on Wednesdays. Although it was perhaps a forlorn hope, Mr. Sidey essayed his everlasting task of trying to impress the House with the virtues of' his Summer Time Bill, and at one stage it looked as if he might succeed, but once more the Fates were against him, and the Bill is again relegated to the realm of the "also starteds." Mr. M'Combs's Popular Initiative and Referendum Bill ■was read a second and probably a last time this session, but two other Labour measures—The Motherhood Endowment Bill (Mr. Savage) and the Miners' Phthisis Bill (Mr. Parry)—were ruled out of order by Mr. Speaker on the ground that they involved an appropriation, in which private members are not permitted to take the initiative. Mr. Howard's perennial Workers' Compensation Bill, which seeks to provide that injured workers shall receive full pay and medical attention during the time they are incapacitated, and the Harbours Amendment Bill (Mr. Monteith), which empowers the setting up of an appeal boird for harbour board employees, were referred to the Labour Bills Committee, from which they may not emerge unscathed, and at 12.25 a.m. the House rosa, but without heralding the dawn of success for any private members' efforts this session.