DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1938, Page 8

DAY IN PARLIAMENT

DISCUSSION ON ESTIMATES

By assiduous application to the job in hand, the House of Representatives yesterday managed to dispose of nine classes of Estimates, and rose forty minutes before the usual time. The votes approved were those connected with the Prime Minister's Department, External Affairs, Public Service Commissioner's office, Treasury, Customs, Land and Income Tax, Census and Statistics, Stamp Duties, and Labour. The total sum involved was £775,153. | The vote for the Prime Minister's D.e----j partment gave rise to some discussion !on utterances made by the High Commissioner (Mr. W. J. Jordan) at Geneva, while that for External Affairs | provoked an academic discussion about the production and prices of bananas and oranges, and so on. In the afternoon the principal hold-up was caused by the Labour Department Vote, which gave the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton) and the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) an excuse for a little private wrangle about unemployment figures. It was quite friendly, as between a former Minister of Labour and the present Minister of Labour. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) left last night for the North Auckland district, and in his absence the Deputy Leader of the House (the Hon. P. Fraser) will be in charge of the House. Estimates for the Departments under his control will be dis-> cussed on Tuesday. j