YESTERDAY’S PARLIAMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19613, 20 July 1927, Page 2

YESTERDAY’S PARLIAMENT

LEGISLATURE AMENDMENT BILL [Abridged riion Press Association’.] In moving in the House of .Representatives the second reading of the Legislature Amendment Bill, tlio Hon. A. 13. M’Leotl said that the most important change proposed in the Bill was the setting up of a Permanent .Electoral Boundaries Commission, consisting of the Surveyor-General, the Government Statistician, and the chief electoral officer. The separate North and South Island Commissions were to be abolished. By this means ho hoped to save some £7OO on each occasion the boundaries were altered. Mr H. G. It. Mason (Eden) said the Minister had given a very inadequate explanation of the Bill. There wore somo parts of it with which ho evidently was not familiar, in some respects the Bill was dangerous, especially that part which brought the Gov-ernor-General into the question of settling the electoral boundaries. There was no provision in the Bill which provided that an electorate must be'wholly within the North island and wholly within the South island. As the Bill stood an electorate might bo partly in each island, and that was not desirable. Mr A. Harris (Waitemata) urged that better facilities bo given to seamen for recording their votes, especially those in the Now Zealand Navy. Mr G. W. Forbes (Huruuui) wanted ti) know when the Government proposed to fulfil its overdue promise that some better system would be substi- ; tuted for the abolished second ballot, ' but ho did not expect the method ol election to be changed till the Govern-' ment was changed. Ho thought the time had arrived when there ought to bo some regulation of party funds. At present a candidate was limited by law, but there seemed to be no limit to the amount a party might spend in the interests of its candidates. There should be some reasonable limit fixed, but it was not in the Bill. Therefore the Bill was more remarkable for what was not in the measure than for what was in it. Mr W. D. Lysnar (Gisborne) thought the old form of boundary Commission was better than that proposed in the Bill. It, at least, left no suspicion of political inlluehco. Mr F. N. Bartram (Grey Lynn) congratulated the Government on providing for voting by hospital patients, and ho suggested that political articles in the Press should be signed by the writer. Mr Jones (Ellesmere) urged a return to the old system of absent voters’ permits, as the one used at the last: election made it almost impossible for returning officers to carry out their duties. Mr J. A. Leo (Auckland East) urged that petitions against tho electoral boundary proposals should bo notified in the Press in order that all interested parties should bo made aware of what was proposed and what was objected to. He supported the suggestion that a limit should bo put on the expenditure j in regard to party funds. Mr F. F. Hockly (Rotorua) argued that candidates’ election expenses were fixed at £2OO twenty years ago, and, although the purchasing power of the, , sovereign had been considerably reduced, the amount still stood at £2OO. He suggested that the amount should be raised to £I3OO. Mr W. J. Jordan urged that the Union Jack should be excluded from party propaganda. It should be preserved as a national Hag, and not appropriated as a party Hag. Mr H. E. Holland (Leader ol the Opposition) contended that when a party issued large advertisements in tho interests of a particular candidate the cost of that advertisement should he charged up against that candidate s election expenses. Tho advertisements issued at the last election in the interests of tho Prime Minister alone must have cost not less than £2.000. Mr M’Leod, in reply, said he had instructed his officers to prepare the Bill dealing with two vital points—visa, the size of tho commission and the system ol postal notes. The clause dealing with the city and urban areas was put in at the request of the chairman of the Representation bad no purpose except to aid the Commissions in their work. Personally he did not care whether the clause was retained or not. The electoral rolls ol the country were in excellent condition, and the country could, if necessary ? go to an election in three weeks’ time. The position ol compulsory registration was also good now. At first there "as a little laxity, but a few convictions in each electorate had brought the people to a sense of their duty. He was quite prepared to accept an amendment on the subject of election petitions if a suitable one could bo put forward. He know there were disadvantages in all systems of absent voters’ permits, and he did not know how those disadvantages could be got over. He was, however, prepared to consider this and other points on which lie had an open mind, when the Bill was in committoe. The Bill was read a second time on the voices, and the House rose at midnight.