DAY IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 71, 21 September 1939, Page 10

DAY IN PARLIAMENT

FINANCE AND WAR

Several minor measures were considered by the House of Representatives yesterday, but the main business of the House was the consideration of the Appropriation Bill, which validates the voting of £72,480,000 as Departmental Estimates. Opposition members showed a tendency to discuss the position of the farming community under the war-time v commandeer of produce, and there were many comments on the varied aspects of national life during war. The Acting Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser) made an important announcement when he declared that ( the whole population of New Zealand' might have to come down to the level of the armed forces before the war was won. He was supported in this contention by members of the Opposition, who, by interjection, indicated that all sections of the community should be prepared to make equal sacrifices under existing circumstances.

Later in the debate it was urged that returned soldiers should be included in any expeditionary force sent from New Zealand, and a member voiced the complaints of returned soldiers who are already serving, the principal one being that the allotment of pay to wives and children had been left so long that families had been left for a considerable period without income. The Bill was passed shortly before the usual time for the adjournment of the House, and the adjournment was taken at 10.25 p.m., after Mr. Fraser had stated that minor measures would be. considered today, thus indicating that the war legislation is not yet ready for presentation.