IRON AND STEEL BILL

Grey River Argus, 12 March 1938, Page 5

IRON AND STEEL BILL

PASSED BY HOUSE

After Short Committee Discussion

I Per Press Association]

PARLIAMENT BLDGS., March 11. Speaking after midnight in the House of Representatives on the second reading of the Iron and Steel Industries Bill, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Sullivan) in the course of his reply, said he could not understand why it should be assumed that State enterprise should fail. One had only to look around to see ghastly failures in private enterprise, and he contended that a great number of assertions had been made in this respect by the Opposition without any substantiation. The country was tired of investigations, he added, and now it was time to act.

The second reading of the Bill was passed at 12.10 p.m„ without a division. and the House rose at 12.10 until 2.30 p.m. PARLIAMENT BLDGS,, March 11. This afternoon in the House of Representatives urgency was accorded the passing of the Iron and Steel Industry Bill on the motion of the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage), and the House then proceeded to consider the Bill In the committee stages.

Discussing the short title, Mr S. G. Smith (Nat., New Plymouth) said that the undertaking could have been established for less than the £5,000,000 which the Government proposed to spend. He asked the Minister what knowledge he had of the iron and steel industry, and said" that they should have some further information as to where the plant was to be located. The Government was rushing headlong into a scheme that would be a complete failure

The Minister of Industries and Commerce (Hon. D. G. Sullivan) remarked that it was a pity that the Member for New Plymouth did not give a little more serious thought to the question. Mr Smith: Don’t be silly! Mr Sullivan: A Bill of this importance demands serious consideration.

Mr Smith: Don’t lose your temper! Mr Sullivan: I think the honourable gentleman is losing his temper. He is afraid of what I am going to say. Mr Smith: You know nothing about it! Mr Sullivan: I will not ask for an apology. I will leave it. at that. Tho Minister added that Brassert’s had recommended a suitable plant for New Zealand conditions.

The short title was passed at 5.20 p.m.. and the remaining clauses of the Bill were put through with the utmost despatch, the House getting on with business after the usual tea hour at 5.30 until 5.48, when the Bill was read a third time and passed. . During the committee stages, several slight amendments to the clauses dealing with compensation, which are designed to strengthen them, were approved, and the House adjourned at 5.50 until 7.30 to-night.

COAL FROM GREYMOUTH

WELLINGTON, March 10.

An indication of the importance of the establishment of an iron and steel industry at Onekaka to the ports of Greymouth and Onekaka was given by Mr L. G. Lowry (Govt., Otaki) during the debate on ■ the Iron and Steel Industry Bill in the House of Representatives to-day. According to figures he gave, Onekaka would become one of the most important ports in the Dominion.

If the plant were established at Onekaka. Mr Lowry said, it would apparently be essential to ship the coking coal necessary for smelting from the port of Greymouth. This and other inward cargo to Onekaka, and the export of the production of the plant, would, on the figures available, make Onekaka the seventh largest port in New Zealand from the point of view of tonnage. Mr Lowry quoted the Member for Nelson (Mr Atmore) as having said in the house in 1914 that as far back as 40 years before that there had been talk of exploiting the iron ore deposits at Onekaka. Twenty-five years had passed since that reference, yet nothing had been done. Now the Government had come to the definite conclusion that New Zealand could not afford to wait any longer for private enterprise-to do the job.