DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 8

DAY IN PARLIAMENT

FINANCE BILL DEBATE

With almost everyone absorbed in international developments, interest in the debate on the Finance Bill in the House yesterday was very mild, though the Opposition managed to maintain a formal protest until the House rose at its normal time of 5.30 p.m. Several amendments were moved, notably one to alter the income limit for taxation purposes, but they went the way of previous Opposition amendments.

The Acting Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser) interrupted the debate to make an appeal to the country not to place any credence in unauthenticated rumours about war, and he gave a welcome reassurance that the Government was ready to meet any emergency should the need arise.

Of particular interest outside the limits of the debate was the acceptance by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton) of the challenge thrown out the previous night by the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) over Opposition criticism of the administration of the Minister's Department. Any further developments, however, were quickly ended by the intervention of Mr. Fraser, who plainly told the parties concerned that there was not going to be any Commission set up to hear the dispute.

The Legislative Council met after the House rose, and gave its assent to the Finance Bill and the annual Tax-