BIG PROGRAMME

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 138, 8 December 1945, Page 10

BIG PROGRAMME

SESSION REVIEWED

IMPORTANT LEGISLATION

The Parliamentary session which concluded yesterday afternoon occupied 88 sitting days, but extended in all over 164 days, from June 27. Unlike the war years, the session was continuous, the House meeting each week, and it is necessary to go back to 1927 to find a continuous session which was of comparable duration. In that year the House met on 105 days and the session extended over 166 days. The length of a session is measured by members by the period over which it extends, and in that respect, apart from 1927, there has not been a longer continuous session since 1913, when the total number of days occupied was 173 and the number of days of meeting ! 102. j As is not unusual, the main business of the session was done in the con- j j eluding weeks, when a succession of I Government measures was presented, i but the concentration of Bills on this, occasion was greater than is customary- To put all the business through meant sitting long hours and on a number of occasions into the small hours of the morning. That process! continued right to the end, the session i dying hard with a sitting on Thursday 1 that extended to daylight yesterday. By contrast with the last few weeks, the early months, of the session were rela- : tively light. A long time was spent on the Address-in-Reply debate, which always follows the Speech from the Throne delivered by the GovernorGeneral on the opening day. More weeks were subsequently spent on the Financial debate. It is held by some with long experience of Paiiiamentary procedure that if the end-of-session rush is to be avoided and more time is to be affoi'ded to the consideration of legislation one of the best and easiest ways of achieving this would be to have some time limit on the duration of these debates or some limit on the number of speakers. While it is recognised that in a democratic Government one of the cardinal principles is that there should be freedom of speech and an opportunity for those who wish to exercise that right to do so, nevertheless, the Address-in-Reply and Financial debates can become very tiresome when carried on for weeks at a time. This is particularly so of the Financial debate, in which members may speak for an hour. Although there have been long hours lately and Bills have been presented which have contained principles contrary to the Opposition's beliefs and which the Opposition has felt impelled to fight with all the vigour at its command, the session was completed without any unpleasant incidents. It was a well behaved Chamber, and one in whose conduct the Dominion may feel proud. IMPORTANT LEGISLATION. For the Government it was not only a session in which it brought down a large volume of legislation, but a considerable proportion of its measures were amongst the most important and far-reaching that it has sponsored m its. ten years of office. They dealt with a wide variety of subjects, ranging from purely political questions to such matters as control of atomic energy. The Labour Government in its first, session in 1936 embarked upon its programme to give effect to the policy it had enunciated for many years. That session, and also that of 1937, produced a considerable volume of legislation, some of it of a revolutionary nature. The war called a halt to Labour's programme to some extent, but this year it was taken up again and some important chapters in the Labour Party's policy have been incorporated in the Statute law of the country. Among some of the legislation which the Government has put through this session and which stands out from the list may be mentioned that taking over the privately owned shares in the Bank of New Zealand, the changes that have been made in the electoral, factories, and shops and offices laws. There were also the increased social i security benefits and the steps that were taken to provide universal family benefits as from April 1 next, the measure designed to provide full employment for those willing and able to work, and the Act providing for the payment of minimum wages for male and female workers. All these have been important rneasui'es. There was also the legislation nationalising the air services. Other important legislation included that to provide for the reticulation of electric power in sparsely settled rural areas. From the point of view of the legislation put through it was in the nature of a monumental year for the Government. All told 49 public Bills were passed, nine local Bills, and four private Bills.