PARLIAMENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 August 1930, Page 5

PARLIAMENT

, INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION ACT. [SPEC!AT. TO “STAB.”] WELLINGTON. August 22. e A brief amendment to the Indus- > trial and Arbitration Act was introll duced in the House to-day. It has d been the practice of the Arbitration i- Court to ratify amicable agreements a entered into by parties before it, but tho point has arisen that some of a the matters agreed to were not incluso trial questions within the meaning of ■1 the Act. The object of the amends' rnent is to empower the Court to insert such provisions provided it is f satisfied they are relevant to the dis- • pute. PRICE OF COAL. 1 , The Leader of the Labour Party > (Mr Holland) gave notice in the House - to-day, to ask the Minister of Rail- - ways whether steps had been taken to ■ force down the price of New Zealand 1 coal to the level of Australian coal. l With the defeat of the miners in Australia, and concessions of freight, I Mr Holland said that the Australian • coal could come into New Zealand at | a price that would throw the Dominion miners out of work. “SAMOA GUARDIAN.” Mr Holland is also to ask the Post-master-General if he is aware that issues of the “Samoa Guardian” of the 7th and 14 th August have been confiscated by the Postal Department, and whether he will state why this action was taken; also whether he will give an assurance that suppression of newspapers which are opposed to coercion in Samoa, is not to be a feature of the Government’s policy. LEAGUE OF NATIONS. Pointing to a vote of £10,780 in this year’s estimates as New Zealand’s proportion of the League of Nations’ sec- f retariat expenses for the year ending December 31, 1930, Mr Sullivan asked in the House to-day, if the Prime Minister was satisfied the allocation was fair. The Primo Minister said that the different, countries associated in the League were assessed at a certain proportion of the actual cost of administration. The total number of units was 986 of which New Zealand constituted 10, Australia 27, United Kingdom 140, Japan 60, Italy 60 etc. The total Budget for the Secretariat expenses last year was 28,210,248 gold francs, equal to 5,520.000 United States’ dollars. (Laughter). Mr Sullivan: We want to know how% many quids. “What is it in Chinese cash?” asked Mr Samuel. Mr Forbes said it amounted to roughly £1,000,000 a year. New Zealand’s share might be more next year as he understood the expenses would be slightly larger. Possibly a further vote would have to bo made on the Supplementary Estimates to make up tho Dominion’s quota. After putting through several items of the Estimates this afternoon, the House adjourned until Tuesday.