PARLIAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1937, Page 5

PARLIAMENT

DEBATE PROCEEDS SUPPLY BILL PASSES ALL STAGES (Pei Press Association —Copyright). WELLINGTON, September 15. The House met at 2 p.m. when the Imprest Supply Bill was introduced by the Governor-General's message, urgency being granted the measure. The opening speaker in the debate was the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, who asked the Prime Minister to define a term which he used so often when speaking in various parts of New Zealand, namely the phase “public credit.” Mr Savage explained that the term meant borrowing from institutions which were owned by tlie Government, as against borrowing from privately-owned banks. Ho asserted the Dominion was in an increasingly prosperous condition today, and that the objective of the Government was to see the people wero in a better position to-day than they had been in the past. The debate was continued by Messrs S. G. Holland, P. C. Webb, J. Hargest, and I). G. Sullivan. When the House resumed at 7.30 p.m., Mr AY. T. Poison criticised the Minister of Finance’s tour abroad, and contended that the meat agreement with Britain could have been just as satisfactorily reached if Mr Nash had not left the country. Mr S. S. Smith (National, New Plymouth) drew attention to the discrepancies in wages paid to permanent civil servants and those paid to casual labour, the latter in many cases being substantially higher than tfio wages on full-time of civil servants. Mr J. A. Leo (Govt. Grey Lynn) said the present Government had nothing to be ashamed of in respect to its housing policy. New Zealand’s present marketing policy, he said, had been a stupendous success, and for the first time in years New Zealand had been able to close the gap which separated Danish butter from that of Now Zealand on the London market. The Government’s marketing policy had paid a hundredfold for the the trip of the Minister of Finance.

The debate was continued by Mr K. Holylake (National, Motueka) and Mr B. Roberts (Govt. AVairarapa). The bill which provides for the expenditure of £8.781,000, passed through all stages without any further debate, and the House rose at 12.20 a.m. until 7.30 to-night, when the address-in-reply debate will begin.