PARLIAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1940, Page 6

PARLIAMENT

AFTERNOON HOUSE SESSION

(Per Press Association —Copyright)

WELLINGTON, December 4

The House this afternoon was occupied with the discussion of the report of the Public Petitions Committee oil the petition of two public servants, L. M. Esteem rt" and T. V. Foster, who both asked for reinstatement in public service,- from which they had been discharged. The committee, in both cases recommended that the reports be referred to the Government for favourable consideration.

The House finally agreed that both reports should be laid on the table. Mr W. F. Schramm (Govt., Auckland East) , who is chairman , of the committee, referred to tiie powers of the Public Service Commissioner, and drew attention to a circular which had been sent to different departments drawing renewed attention to the fact that civil servants were debarred from taking employment of any kind outside of the service. Mr Schramm contended that if the circular, as worded, applied iirsuoh cases as the secretaryships of bowling clubs, religious bodies, political party branches, etcetera, the Prime Minister should give an assurance that it would not be put into effect.

1 Rt. Hon. Mr Fraser said that- no one was,,more surprised than he was alt the interpretation which had been put on the circular mentioned by Mr Schramm. It was quite true that public servants had been debarred -.from accepting employment outside of the service. For instance, it would be most- unfair for a member of the staff of the Land and Income Tax Department to keep books for a private individual ; or for an architect of the Public Works Department to draw plans for a private architect.

Mr J. A. Lee:. Can’t he be the secretary of a church organisation? Mr Fraser: That does not apply at all.

Mr Fraser continued that there were people connected with all sorts of organisations . who received small remuneration for services which were to all intents and purposes voluntary. In such cases the Public Service Commissioner Mil already indicated that there would be no interference, and he (Mr Fraser) cpuld also give that definite assurance. If there were any doubt about the matter, another circular would he sent out.,

: An appeal' to the wearers of silk stockings not to buy so many pairs, and thus help to conserve overseas funds wherewith to buy munitions, was made by;the Minister of Customs. Hon. W. Nash,, in reply to an urgent question tabled by the Speaker, Mr W. E. Barnard, when the House met today at 2.30. Mr Barnard asked: If the Minister would take immediate steps tg meet an impending acute shortage in the Dominion of women’s silk and artificial silk hose?

The Minister said those who were asking for more silk stockings would do something more advantageous if ■they wore fine woollen stockings. At ■this moment, munitions were much more in a reasonable demand for the sterling funds than were silk stockings.

Mr Nash said he understood that arrangements were being made for the manufacture of hosiery to be extended in 1941, and, when these plans materialise, it was expected that the supplies available from local industry should be adequate to meet requirements. WAR REGULATIONS DEBATE / PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Dec. 4. Discussion on the War Regulations occupied the attention of the House to-night, urgency .'being to-anted to allow the debate to continue after 10.30 p.ui., if necessary. Opening the debate, Mr F. W. Doidge (Nat.,

Tauranga), said he appreciated the action of the Prime Minister in giving the House an opportunity to discuss these regulations. More laws, lie contended, were being made bv Orders-in-Council than by Parliament, and he was sure that not one member of the House in ten knew one tenth of the regulations which had been passed. Speaking of regulations dealing with ■price control, he said these governed the whole work of the Price Tribunal, and ho 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 effort. Rt. Hon. P. Fraser: They are the best system in operation in any countrv.

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 bad 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 Doidge contended that people nowadays often broke laws unwittingly through lack of knowledge of regulations. Under these regulations every Ministei had become a dictator and every bead of department a Lord .High Executioner.

Mr I 'nidge asked, why suppress the journal “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He could not understand anyone reading it. fie concluded that people were

being buried under an avalanche of regulations.

The Prime Minister said that the last speaker had missed the whole purport of the War Regulations. There might be an excellent case against previous Governments tor tbe issue of too many regulations, but that was an academic interest. This country was now at wai, 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 these

things. Mr Fraser: “I didn’t hear the Hon. gentleman making that point in his speech! The Hon. gentleman failed hopelessly £o do anything like that, and he went on piling up a spurious, untenable case.” He had scarcely 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. Poison (Nat., Stratford) : It is not the right to make the regulations that we are complaining about, but it is the use being made of them.

Mr Fraser: “If it can be established that they are being -wrongly used, then that would he a strong case.” ' Speaking of the “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Mr Fraser said that, in normal times, all that the Government 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 the people should be united, and that there should be no sectarian dissention. He had taken it upon himself to appeal to various religious organisations for unity, and to avoid anything that would lead to recriminations. We were all in the war, whether we were Catholics, Protestants, Baptists Presbyterians, or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Mr Fraser, replying to the Jehovah’s j Witnesses, added that lie was hoping r that the Attorney-General could come to some arrangement with the Jeho- ' vah’s Witnesses. He did not doubt their ' sincerity, or tbe question of their right to worship according to their coni science,. 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 the regu- ‘ lations. Ms Fraser admitted that certainly ’ great powers were given under the ’ War Emergency Regulations. They ' were a sacred trust, and they were J not embarked upon lightly. Adequate reasons were given for the various regulations, arid it was better that some slight inconvenience should be caused to thousands of people than to ' find a blow struck at some of the coun- : try’s vital points. I J Mr Fraser appealed to members to retrain from petty and irritating criticism as far as the country’s war | j effort was concerned, but the Opposition, lie said, had the opportunity, ' both in secret session, and in 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, Mi S. G. Holland, said that, although the country was at war, Parliament was still the place where the voice ,of the people was to be expressed, and they would do the country a great disservice if they handed over to the Civil Service a job that was thenprerogative and their duty. Mr Holland said lie would have no hesitation in saying tha the Regulations whicu 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 boon tabled on' which he wished to test the feeling of the House, he would he given the opportunity. Mr Holland replied that that was a concession, and it showed that tin debate was worth while. Continuing he contended that it was time that, as a people, they stopped fooling and got oil with the job What the country had to lea,in, or to ro-learn, was a simple thing, that its prosperity depended on hard work. The Minister of Labour, Hon. P. 0. Webb, said that no regulation affecting labour had been introduced, unless it had been thoroughly investigated by the Industrial Emergency Council, and there was no Committee doing a greater national service. So far as these regulations were concerned. the Minister said, those in industry were doing a magnificent job, and where commodities were short, they were working day and night to provide extra commodities. . The workers were responding splendidly. hut there was a lot more to :ic done. He appealed for unity, and said that the Government, wanted to feel that whatever it did would be for 11 the common good of the British Commonwealth.

Mr J. A. Lee expressed an objection to the speech made by tmLeader of the Opposition. This was on the grounds that it conveyed an impression that New Zealand was a nation of slackers. The sum total of our production showed we were an industrious people. but the best could not be go out of workers it resentment were created in their heart-.. Mr Lee also referred to tne Jehovah’s W itnesses. He said be bad read literature of this sect, lie considered. that while a lot of it np