GUARANTEED PRICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 107, 7 May 1936, Page 14

GUARANTEED PRICES

Bill "Gagged" Through

MEMBERS SIT UP ALL NIGHT

Complaints by Opposition

With frequent applications of the closure, a weapon placed in the hands of the Government by its predecessors, the House of Representatives at 5-50 o'clock this morning passed the Primary Products Marketing Bill, which provides for a guaranteed price for dairy produce as from August 1 next and places the complete control of the output of the farmers in the hands of the Government. Indications that the House would be expected to sit all night were fulfilled. Early in the afternoon the Government used the closure to secure the passing of the second reading, and at 4.10 p.m. yesterday the House, went into Committee on the measure. A long debate on the short title was brought to a conclusion at 9.15 p.m. by the application of the closure, and thereafter followed a protracted debate on the various clauses of the Bill. Some of these clauses the Opposition allowed to go through with a minimum of discussion, but on others-there developed controversial discussions, which were vabruptly terminated :by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage), who; lived up- to his previously-expressed determination to "gag" the measure through in face of all opposition. In his own words, "he stood no nonsense," a fact that roused the ireoorfr the Opposition on numerous occasions.