PETONE AND HUTT GAS LIGHTING BILL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 122, 19 November 1929, Page 8

PETONE AND HUTT GAS LIGHTING BILL

(To the Editor.) it ;='1 In , the, coming election in the Hutt «rus s fhiSic^i nearly half the cost it is at present The Labour Party wanted this industry to be a Government monopoly-a most ridiculous proposal from an economic viewpoint The sooner the Labour Party allows private enterprise to earn a fair'percentage of profit the better it will be for the mTne will /I™ 5' ST aWer »™ th« mine will take up the cudgels and show am etc * the'r friends are-*

GIVE US GAS. [It is not fairto say that the members of the Labour Party in Parliament were respons.ble for -'killing" the Petone and 81l T^ GaS Lighting Amendment Bill, for Labour, speakers who took part £,JTh S£? ,readlnS debate on Tuesday sth November, were even more sympathetic with the project outlined in the am than were some members of the Reform and United Parties. Two of the Labour members suggested that it would be wise if the Government were to acquire any new patent rights in the carbonisation of coal, but two United members and one Reform member were definitely hostile to the Bill on the ground, that the promoters would be likely to make undue profits. The Bill was given a second reading, and in Committee the short title was ' carried by 43 votes to 21. Further consideration of the measure that day was interrupted by the tea adjournment and it was not called on again in the remaining four days of the session.—Ed.]