PARLIAMENTARY NOTES

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 August 1920, Page 6

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES

TOPICS OF THE DAY,

DAY BY DAY

[Our Parliamentary Reporter.]

WELLINGTON, August 13

Private members’ day in the House of Representatives is rarely heavy. Those who have Bills on the Order Paper are very serious and businesslike, but their colleagues on both sides of the House frequently poke fun. The Government tolerates the whole performance as a necessary evil. To-day was perhaps more businesslike than the average occasion, since one of the private members’ Bills concerned received Government support, hor the rest, one passed its second reading without debate, another was read a second time pro forma, a third collapsed in committee, and a fourth was killed by its own father. ■ ’ibis last was tne War Pensions Amendment Bill, introduced by Mr. A. Harris (Waitemata). It proposed the setting-up of a War Pensions Appeal Board, but as the Government is n.;w going to do this, Mr. Harris moved to report progress immediately the House went into committee on the Bill. It was a Bill standing in the name of Mr. T. M. Milford (Hutt), dealing with native hands, that was read a second time pro forma. The vest of the afternoon was taken up by debates on petitions and a discussion on the questions and replies which had been circulated.

STATE BANK BILL KILLED

On the motion of the Prime Minister (Tt. lion. W. F. Massey), the dominion State. Bank Bill, introduced by Mr. W. A. Veitcli (Wanganui) which was ruled out of order as an appropriation, was struck off the Order Paper. Mr. Veitcli divided the House on the print and received the support of the Liberals, but was still defeated by 35 voles to 23. POSTAGE ON NEWSPAPERS. Mr. J. Edie (Bruce) has give notice to ask the Minister of Finance (Rtf Hon. W. F. Massey) whether he will so alter the postage on newspapers as to bring it back to not greater than Ml, and o make up the detic.oacy thus caused by ;i creasing the stamp duty on a sliding scale, namely, from £2 to £25, 2d ; £25 to £SO, 2JM ; £SO to .£IOO 5; £IOO or fraction of £IOO. The member for Bruce points out that the increase of postage means the penalising of backblocks settlers, by making them pay a 50 per cent, increase in the cost of a paper, as compared with Hie city dweller. NO BUTTER FOR GROCERS. According to what Mr, R. Masters (Stratford) told the House to-day, the dairy factories of Taranaki are icfusing to supply grocers with butter at any price. Tire Hon. E. P. Lee (Minister of Industries and Ck-minerce) promised to ,:,.. e the Board of Trade make inquiries. SAFETY OF BEARER BONDS. The provision of some means of safeguarding bearer bonds issued in connection w.th the war loans was suggested to the Prime Minister by Mr. L. M. Wilford (Hull) The bonds, he remarked, were easily neg.-tiable il lost, and might also be destroyed by fire if thu owner had no proper means of sateguard them. Mr. Wilford quoted from the regulations of an American bank which pt-rm.tted anybody who cared to deposit one dollar and thus oj en an account •, st .re their Liberty bonds with tne bank f- r safe keeping. He sugge •red that something of the kind might be effected in th s country bv arrangeme-i; with the banks.

Mr. Massey said he would have the matter looked into to see if anything could be done in the direction indicated. FLOOR FOR FIJI. A letter of complaint from a man in Fiji stating that the New Zealand Government had stopped the export of flour to those islands was produced in the House of Representatives by Mr. G. Mitchell (Wellington South), who asked the Prime Minister what was the position. He then corrected himself and said that trie letter was from Niue Island. Mr. Massey said that Niue being one of the Cook Islands, he would hand the question on to the Hon. Dr. Pomare. M ith regard to Fiji, it was a coincidence that this very morning lie had s’gneu a letter to the Governor of Fiji stating that 50 tons of flour were being shipped from Auckland for Fiji. Dr. Pomare then asked if the writer of the letter was complaining that an embargo had been placed on the export of flour to the Cook Islands. Mr. Mitchell commenced to quote the letter, wir'ch he still maintained was from Niue,. and which said that the position was very unfair since the pm io there had sold New Zealand their sugar cheaply. He was answered by a chorus from members fresh from th& Islands tour that there was no sugar at Niue to sell cheaply or otherwise. A further scrutiny of the letter convinced Mr. Mitchell that it really referred to Fiji, and that the information' which he sought had been supplied by the Prime Minister.