POLITICAL POINTS

Evening Star, Issue 22798, 5 November 1937, Page 1

POLITICAL POINTS

TRAFFIC IN HOSPITAL STREET WARM PRAISE FOR DUNEDIN MINISTER [From Ode Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, November 4. At the request of Mr Munro (member in charge) the Dunedin City Empowering Bill has been withdrawn fromi the' Order Paper of the House of Representatives. This was reported by; the Local. Bills Committee, to which! the Bill had been referred; The committee stated that the Standing Orders had only been partially complied with,, the copy of. the Bill available for public inspection in the City Council office having been incomplete. This measure proposed to give the City Council power to make by-laws regulating the traffic, or even prohibiting it, in King and Cumberland streets between 8 p.m,and 6 a.m. SOUNDS HOSTEL. The difficulties of the contractor in: constructing the Milford Sound Hostel were the subject of a petition on which the Public Petitions (A to L) Committee reported to the House to-day. J, A. Hart, the contractor, petitioned: for additional compensation for losses sustained on the contract, and the committee recommended the Government) to make an additional payment, Mr O’Brien, in expressing satisfaction, said Mr Hart had encountered exceptionally adverse weather condi-j tions, and had difficulty in retaining his men, two of whom tried to get away over the track and were lost for some time. The former general manager of the Tourist Department, who visited the job, gave him the assurance that he would receive special consideration, this causing the petitioner to complete the contract, although,after seven months’ work, he was proposing to abandon it. His contract was £4,000 below the official estimate,! though he did not rely on this. as. other tenderers were within £I,OOO of his price. The committee’s report was adopted,-

HEAVY WORK OF MR JONES. Dunedin’s representative in the Cabinet, Mr Jones, has been taking the heavy share of Ministerial work im the House of Representatives recently, and it has been a subject of comment even among His opponents that, in hia handling of the three Defence measures, he showed remarkable grasp of the, details .and. igeneral principles. The Army Board Bill,- the Air Force Bill, and the Air Department, Bill were pat through without amendment, though not without considerable comment and an avalanche of questions, which the Minister of Defence seemed to be able to answer without waiting for any official brief, and in a diplomatic way which made for easy passage for his measures. This week Mr Jones has again taken the heavy end of the Ministerial stick in piloting over a stormy route the Broadcasting Amendment Bilk Among critical points made by the Opposition speakers was one that the Prime Minister, who is the Minister of • Broadcasting, had not taken charge of the measure. However, Mr Savage, speaking in the House to-night, expressed complete confidence in his colleague, and gave him a high testimenial. “ There were people,” he said,, “who thought the Minister of.Defence could' not do the job, but those who listened to him handling his legislation have a different opinion of him to-day. He will do me. He will go on handling the broadcasting service.” i Mr Hamilton (Leader of the Op--position) : Why nqt make him Minister • of Broadcasting? The Prime Minister: Perhaps that is not far away. Having in mind that he has also delegated Samoan and Native Affair# to colleagues who were acting temporarily in those capacities during his absence in London, Mr Savage declared that he would frankly say that no Prime Minister should spend half his time siging a lot of departmental letters that did not matter twopence to anyone. He had bigger things to TtL-rt-about. Those who had been in tba position of Prime Minister did not need to be told that everyone’s sin# found their way to his office, and ho was constantly asked for advice by his Ministers. However, there was no “ nigger in the wood pile,” for they were all co-operating to carry through' the programme which they promised last election.