WAR REGULATIONS

Grey River Argus, 5 December 1940, Page 5

WAR REGULATIONS

•V Y 1 Debate in House . _ < OPPOSITION COMPLAINTS. [Per Press Association] PARL. BLDGS., December 4. , Discussion on the War Regulation □ j occupied the attention of the xiouse to-night, urgency being granted to , allow the 'debate to continue after , 10.30 p.m. if necessary. Opening the , debate, Mr F. W. Doidge (Nat., lau- - ranga), said he appreciated the ac- 1 tion of the Prime Minister in gmng ] the House an opportunity to discuss these regulations. More laws, he contended, were being made by Ui-ders-in-Council than by Parliament, and he was sure that not on e m ® r1 ’ her of the House in ten knew one . tenth of the regulations which had , been passed. Speaking of regulations dealing with price control, he .aid these governed the whole work o the Price Tribunal, and he also mentioned waterfront regulations and , patriotic purposes regulations as other important measures in which Parliament had had no say. He expressed the opinion that the last mentioned had throttled patriotic ef- , fort ~ Rt. Hon. P. Fraser: They ar e the ■ best system in operation in any country. , Mr Doidge continued that people were only now beginning to give freely. They would give even more freely if they had complete trust in the Government. He also referred to regulations providing for the establishment of the Home Guard, and said everyone knew of confusion and chaos which had resulted at the beginning of the scheme. The Minister in charge of the Home Guard had been forced to stump the country to get this organisation on a proper footing. Mr Doidge said, however, that he must admit that the Minister (Mr Semple) had made a splendid job of it. Mr 1 Doidge contended that people nowadays often broke laws unwittingly through lack of knowledge of regulations. Under these regulations every Minister had become a. dictator and. every head of denariment a Lord High Executioner. Mr Doidge asked, why suppress the journal “Jehovah’s Witness.” He could not understand anyone reading it. Hef concluded that people were being buried under an avalanche of regulations. The Prim e Minister said that the last speaker had missed the whole purport of the W far Regula\:v«i?. There might be an excellent £ase against previous Governments for the issue of too many regulations, but that was of K -<academic interest. Tins country was now at war, and it was necessary that the Government should have certain powers. Mr Doidge: It is under the guise of war that you are doing all things. > Mr Fraser: “I didn’t hear the Hon gentleman making that point in his speech! The Hon. gentleman failed hopelessly to do anything l.ike that, and h e went on piling up a spurious, untenable case.” He had scaicely mentioned the War Regulations, continued Mr Fraser, but he had mentioned various regulations which the Government had been forced to introduce at the request of the people whose livelihood had been affected Whatever Government was in power during the war period, it must have authority to make regulations to deal with the situations which might arise. Mr W. J. Polson (Nat., Stafford) It is not the right to make the Regulations that we are complaining about, but it is the use being made of them. , . , t i Mr Fraser: “If it can be established that they are being wrongly used, then that would be a strong case Speaking of the Jehovah s Witnesses Mr Fraser said that, in not mal times, all that the Governmeni was concerned about was that there. should be no breaches of peace, but. when we came to a war period then it was essential' that tbo peop.e should be united, .and that there should be no sectarian dissension. Tie had taken it upon himself to appeal to various religious organ sat ions tor unity, and to avoid anything that would lead to recriminations. Wr were all in the war, whether we were Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Presbyterians, or Jehovah’s Witnoshes. Mr Fraser, replying to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, added that he was hoping that the Attorney-General could come to some arrangement with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He did doubt their sincerity, or the question of their right to worship according to their conscience. The Government had no quarrel with them and he hoped that something could be done whereby that organisation could worship like the other churches in a normal way, and not do anything against th e regulations. Mr Fraser admitted that certain.y great powers were given under the War Emergency Regulations. 1 -iey wer e a sacred trust, and they were not embarked upon lightly. Adequate reasons were given for the var J° u -'’ Regulations, and it was better that some slight inconvenienc should be caused to thousands of people than to find a blow struck at some of the country’s vital points. Mr Fraser appealed to members m refrain from petty and irritating criticism as far as the country’s wai effort was concerned, but the Opposition, he said, had the opportunity, 'both in secret session, and m open session, to put forward suggestions and to criticise anything they considered a weakness, in order to help the country to go forward to victory. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr S G Holland, said that, although the country wa s at war, Parliament was still the place where the voice of the people was to be expressed, anc they would do the country a great disservice if they handed over to the Civil Service a job that was their prerogative and thesr duty. Mr Holland said he would have no hesitation in saying that the Regulations which the House was discussing had been employed in a number of directions and on numerous occasions to do things that Parliament itself would not countenance.Mr Fraser said that if Mr Holland would indicate any particular Regulation that had been tabled on which he wished to test the feeling of the House, he would be given the opportunity. Mr Holland rep’ied that that was a'concession, and it showeo that the debate was worth while. Continuing, he contended that it was time that, as o people, they stopped fooling atd got on with the job. What the country had to learn, or to re-learn, was a simple thing, that its prosperity .heriendec? 'on hard work. . The Minister of Labour, Hon. P. C.

Webb, said that no regulation affecting labour had been introduced, unless it had peen thoroughly investigated by the Industrial Emergency Council, and there was no Committee doing a greater national service. So far as these regulations were concerned, th e Minister said, those in industry were doing a magnificent job, and where commodities were short, they were working day and night to provide extra Th e worker- were responding splendidly, but there was a. lot more to be done. He appealed for unity, and said that the Government wanted to feel that whatever it did would b e for the common good of the British Commonwealth.

Mr J. A. Lee expressed an objection to the speech made by the i Leader of the Opposition. This was on the grounds that it conveyed an impression that New Zealand was a nation of slackers. Th e . sum total of pur production showed we were an industrious people, but the best could not be got out of workers if resentment were created in their hearts. Mr Lee also referred to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He said he had read literature of this sect. He considered, that while al lot of it appeared fantastic, he could not read into it anything subversive . Mr Holland said that he had been grossly misrepresented by Mr Lee. He had 'paid repeated tributes to the workers of New Zealand. The Minister of Agriculture. Hon. W. Lee Martin, characterised the Opposition’s criticism of the Regulations as unfair. He said the manner in which they have operated showed that the Government was receiving its fullest co-operation from the dairying industry. Mr W. J. Polson (Nat., Stratford', said the War Regulations should be closely watched. What the countiy wanted from the Government at piesent was leadership in making the utmost effort so that this war coulc be won. The debate was continuing at midnight' '• ZTT TT The Attorney-General (Hon. H. u. R. Mason), briefly replied to the debate, and the House rose at 12.45 a.m.