POLITICAL RUMOURS

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 July 1929, Page 5

POLITICAL RUMOURS

NEW PARTIES AND LEADERS MEMBERS’ DENIALS (Special to ‘‘Star.’’) WELLINGTON, July 30. The second session of the 23rd Parliament of New Zealand is now in its fifth week, and as is usual about the middle period of the session, all sorts of rumours are current about divisions and splits in the political parties. This session promises to outdo all other sessions in this respect, as this time the United Party has been brought into the “split” arena, and even the Labour’ party has not escaped. So far as the Reform party is concerned, rumour has been going the rounds for the past three weeks that Mr Coates is to be displaced from the leadership in place of Sir J. Parr, High Commissioner, or Mr R. W. Hawke, who by the -way is a United Party member for Kaiapoi. These rumours have been published outside Wellington, from which city they have emanated, but it would seem that none of them has originated from any pressman within the four -walls of Parliament House. Apparently they have

some outside source in Wellington and some members of Parliament pretend that they can place their finger on that source without any very serious effort at thinking. So far as the United Member for Kaiapoi is concerned he stated to-day that he was most amused at what had been published outside Wellington concerning himself, and the new Reform party. “If any political party is going to depend on R. W. Hawke for its leader,” he said, “There will be no political party.” Other members of the House seem similarly inclined to treat the message about Mr Hawke lightly. The suggestion that he is associated with the movement to reform the Re-

form party is scouted by Mr Samuel, who said, when interviewed to-day, that the message which had been sent out from Wellington contained not a tittle of truth. “I am surprised that reputable newspapers should publish what they did without stating the source, quite apart from the very comical aspect of the message which is too laughable for words. I may say that the Reform party has never been more solid than it is to-day, and like Mr Waite and Mr Nash, I am only too happy to serve under the present Reform Leader, to whom I am entirely loyal.” Among other rumours, one which

has gained currency is that certain members of the Labour Party have declared emphatically that in no circumstances will they vote for any no confidence motion which would be likely if carried to bring about a dissolution of Parliament this year, or at any time before the end of the natural course of the present Parliament. Still another rumour, and one which has been mentioned in Parliament, is that Sir J. Ward intends to go to London as High Commissioner. From present appearances prospects are that this session will ran its normal course without the Government’s occupancy of the Treasury benches being seriously challenged. It *is impossible to forecast accurately the duration of the session, but in the opinion of those competent to judge, it is unlikely to close down much before the middle of October.

A BRIEF SITTING. The House held a brief sitting today. The most important business w’as the passing of the Rent Restriction Continuance Bill, extending the present restrictions for another year. It was pointed out by the Minister of Labour’ (Mr Veitch) that the legislation really affected four main cities as the rent pressure was not so great in the provincial towns. The death of Mr J. F. Arnold, a one

time member for Dunedin Central, was referred to by Sir J. Ward, Mr Coates, Mr Howard and Mr Carr, and at 3.50 p.m., the House adjourned, as a mark of respect, until to-morrow. TIMBER IMPORTATION. The danger of dumping of foreign timber into the Dominion was emphasised in questions addressed to the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Cobbe) by Mr J. O’Brien, who drew the Minister’s attention to the grave position of the New Zealand timber industry from the danger of dumping by overseas lumber companies subsidised by their respective Governments. The American Government, he said, subsidised the’ line of vessels bringing mails to New Zealand and Australia once a month. Each of those vessels must have a carrying capacity of 4,000,000 feet of timber, which was equal to the annual output of four average New Zealand sawmills. The Canadian Government had accepted a tender for the carriage of mails between Vancouver and Australia, the vessels carrying the mails to have a capacity of 4,000,000 feet of timber. He wished to ask the Minister of Customs if he would take steps to prevent the sawmilling industry being so seriously affected by dumping such timber as to cause the closing down of sawmills, thereby throwing a large number of men out of work to swell the ranks of unemployed. Mr Cobbe replied that according to information in possession of the Government, there was at present no evidence that timber coming into New Zealand from the United States was

Jealand from the United States was being imported under conditions which would warrant the impositißn of a. dumping duty. No investigations had yet been made into the conditions under which timber would in future be imported from Canada. The whole matter was being closely watched, and if it was found that timber was being imported under conditions that warranted action by the Government, such action would be taken.