HIE DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 49, 26 August 1925, Page 5

HIE DAY IN PARLIAMENT

The business of the Honse of Representatives commenced yesterday afternoon with an unexpected fusillade of protest from the combined forces of the Opposition against what they regarded ns an untimely curtailment cf the privilege of private members to have measures of their own initiation discussed on Wednesdays, This small bombardment,' which had its zero hour about fifteen minutes after the House met and rambled on for a couple of hours, originated with the motion of the Prime Minister that on and after to-day Government business should take precedence on Wednesdays. Several members suspected tho Government of forcing an early General Election, but this was denied by the Hon. J. G. Coates, who added that ,the shots from the opposing benches had shown the necessity for giving the country an early opportunity of saying whother it wanted the present Government to continue in office or not. A division showed that the' Government had four too many guns for the opponents of the motion; tho casualty list may be available after the election. In the evening, while the Land For Settlements Bill was under discussion, surprising eloquence was shown by several speakers just prior to the supper adjournment which may or may not have been inspired by the presence in the galleries of the Empire Press delegates. At any rate, after supper the debate assumed a soberer tenor, and the sins of omission and commission of the Government in regard to land settlement we^e recorded until 2,15 a.m., when, the Hon. A. D. M'Leod having done hia best in a limited time to unrecord them, members bestirred themselves to find warmer and more comfortable resting places than paddvd leather benches.