GOOD RECEPTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 31, 5 August 1936, Page 11

GOOD RECEPTION

FIRST LABOUR BUDGET

CROWDED GALLERIES

SPEECH BROADCAST

Speaking lor an hour and 35 minutes, the Hon. W. Nash) Minister of Finance,. disclosed the contents of the Labour Government's first Budget to an expectant House and country last night. It was received in the House in much the same manner as other Budgets have been received. Every word the Minister uttered was listened to attentively, and at the end of his speech he was accorded a round of applause for his particularly fine effort, in view of the state of his throat for the last few days. Special amplifiers were installed in the Chamber in order to compensate for any vocal deficiency occasioned by the state of the Minister's throat, but it was found necessary to use them for only part of the time. Before him as he spoke were suspended two microphones, one for the national broadcast and the other for the amplifiers.

The galleries were packed with spectators, some of Whom had arrived as early as 5.30 p.m. in order to ensure themselves a front-row seat, and the benches were practically full. Very little interruption disturbed the even flow of Mr. Nash's remarks, the Opposition members taking the keenest interest in what he had to say. The Leader ofx the Opposition (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) was supplied with a copy of the Budget, and was able to follow the Minister's remarks.

Mr. Nash sounded rather husky when he began, but his voice improved in a very short time, and for the rest of the proceedings seemed to be fairly normal. -

About ten minutes after he started, he announced the first of his closelyguarded and anxiously-awaited utterances—the guaranteed price for dairy produce. He then reviewed in some detail various aspects of the major policy measures now operative. With the words, "I now come to the Budgetary proposals," there was a definite stir, and the Minister's audience prepared itself fpr the most' interesting phase of the Financial Statement. Without a falter he traversed the taxation proposals and other highlyimportant Budgetary provisions, and a brief murmur of amusement greeted his smiling remark: "And now I come to the question: 'Where is the money to come from?'" He proceeded to answer it

THE FIRST INTERJECTION.

He had been going for nearly an hour and a half when he aroused the first interjection from the Opposition side. . "What date is the sales tax coming off?" asked Mr. S. G. Smith (National, New Plymouth).

"And the exchange?" supplemented Mr. W. J. Broadfoot (National, Waitomo). "Order! Order!" called the Chairman of Committees (Mr. E. J. Howard).

The Minister introduced a new note when it came to the climax of his statement by reading the quotation from the statement of a Church -leader:—

Hard indeed is the task set before us, and well we know that from this side and that, from the higher social

classes and from the lower,- very many difficulties and obstacles will present themselves to be oyercome; but we will not for all that lose heart, nor allow ourselves to be turned from our resolutions.