DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 108, 3 November 1937, Page 8

DAY IN PARLIAMENT

GUARANTEED PRICES AGAIN

In spite of opportunities that they have had already this session, members in the House of Representatives yesterday were ready and willing to take advantage of the latitude offered by the Imprest Supply (No. 2) Bill to discuss an almost unlimited selection of subjects, and from shortly after 2.30 o'clock in the afternoon, until 12.35 a.m. this morning, they let themselves go. The Opposition developed the rural side of the arguments mainI ly, and the climax of things was reached after the tea adjournment, when the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates (National, Kaipara) and the Minister of Finance and Marketing (the Hon. W. Nash) staged a combat a deux over the question of the guaranteed price. Mr. Coates had some remarks to make about the current price of New Zealand butter on the London market and the price the Government was paying the producers, and Mr. Nash immediately countered with an explanation of an already much-explained procedure about the guaranteed price, which he described as the most complete principle, from the safety point of view, that had ever been introduced into the country. Incidentally/he was so anxious to correct Mr. Coates on certain points that he jumped up in his seat with a suddenness that upset all the carefully-laid plans of the Whips, who had their speakers all nicely marshalled. These two members were not content to let things go without another brief skirmish which coloured the concluding stages of the debate.