SESSION’S END

Evening Star, Issue 23065, 17 September 1938, Page 24

SESSION’S END

BIG LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMME CLOSING AMENITIES [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September 16. Parliament’s work is over, and, in the words of the Prime Minister when he moved the adjournment of the House of Representatives at the close of the session yesterday afternoon, the servants of the country will go in a short time to meet their masters—the electors. After a session lasting nearly throe months, members on both sides were ready to call an end to their efforts, and it was abundantly plain during the valedictory phase of the closing hours that the predominant thought was of the coming elections.

“The period of this Parliament has been fairly strenuous from time to time.” said the Prime Minister. “We have had some heat at times, perhaps ” Mr (Broadfoot: Only warm. Mr Savage; We have never reached white heat or anything like it. He added that some of the legislation passed during the life of this Parliament had been far-reaching in character, and, if he might say so, he thought it all in the interests of the people. He hoped it would remain on the Statute Book and bo improved in times to come by other Parliaments. “ We do not claim to have reached perfection,” added the Prime Minister, “ but we do claim that we have made considerable progress. We realise that we are living in a changing world, and we have tried to express those changes by legislation. A Government that failed to do that would not remain on the Treasury Benches very long.” Members would bo in the throes of the election campaign in a day or two, continued Mr Savage, but that did not prevent the members of the Government from expressing thanks to the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues. It would be a poor world l if everyone held the same opinion. “ I am afraid we have differed at various times, but I would like the members of the Opposition to feel that we are pax-ting as friends. If some of us fall by the wayside in the battle that lies ahead, we will still be friends. We would be less than men if it was any other way. It would not be so bad if the Opposition came back on its own, so long as they don’t bring anyone else with them.” (Laughter.) In reciprocating the good wishes of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Hamilton, agreed that members were going back to their master. Democracy had ruled, in New Zealand from the very beginning. It was the best form of government that any country could accept. It was the responsibility of Parliament to see that it was preserved. “In this Parliament the Government has outnumbered us about three to one,” added Mr Hamilton. “We have only a small baud, but we will have a bigger one shortly. In the meantime, we have tried to keep the Government on the right lines and we have succeeded in a small measure, perhaps. We have adopted a reasonable and responsible attitude, such as is expected of an Opposition party. The system has its difficulties, but government with an effective Opposition is not a bad way of handling Parliament in a democratic country.” Mr Hamilton concluded by expressing the hope that the election campaign would_ be conducted in a manner worthy of British democracy, and the Opposition, for its part, would accept the verdict .of the electors. Appreciative references had been made by both leaders to the work of Mr Speaker, the Chairman, of Committees, and all officers connected with Parliament. Acknowledgment was made by the Hon. W. E. Barnard and Mr E. J. Howard. At 5.40 the old Parliamentary joke of negativing the final adjournment division was duly perpetrated, but Mr Speaker declared that under the circumstances he would leave the chair. He, of course, knew that before long Parliament would be prorogued. The National Anthem was then heard in rousing strains, and as a final reminder, of the cii’cumstances ahead, political friend and foe joined hands and sang Auld Lang Syne.