DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 8

DAY IN PARLIAMENT

MORE BACKBENCHERS HEARD Another batch of back-benchers had an opportunity for half-an-hour's say, apiece in the Addres^in-Reply debate yesterday, and nothing startling in the j way of new arguments was produced. There were two speeches from th^ Ministerial benches after the tea adjournment, one by the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) and the other by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong). The Minister of Public Works, in his most picturesque style, made some pungent references to certain features of the General Election campaign, and repeated his assertion that «the coming fight would be the "dirtiest contest in the political history of the Dominion.' The Minister of Labour outlined what the Government had done to dispose of unemployment, and answered charges of "rigging" the unemployment ! returns. The only speaker the Opposition could find to put up yesterday was Mr. K. J. Holyoake (National, Motueka). Mr. D. McDougall (Ind., Mataura) talked his best broad Scots for a while, and had his amusing moments.

The Address-in-Reply debate was continued in the Legislative Council, a feature of the discussion being the Hon. T. Bloodworth's protest about the Council being ignored when it came to certain phases of political procedure.