COLLAPSE OF DEBATE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 244, 12 September 1935, Page 6

COLLAPSE OF DEBATE.

ON LABOUR AMENDMENT. UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 11. The disinclination of Government members to maintain the Address-in-Reply debate because they are awaiting something substantial in the way of the Budget- to discuss enabled the no-confidence amendment of the Leader of the Opposition to be dealt with this afternoon. Perhaps the division at that moment was unexpected, but in view of many absences, principally through sickness, the Government Whips had been busy in maintaining full available strength, this involving the cancellation of a speaking tour by Sir Alfred Ransom in the Nelson district. When the debate was resumed in the afternoon, Mr Barnard completed a speech interrupted by the adjournment, and it was expected that Mr H. M. Campbell (Hawke’s Bay) would follow him. But he was not in the House, and Mr Speaker, formally putting the amendment, found nobody ready to intercept the division by continuing the discussion. The result was, of course, a foregone conclusion, the amendment being defeated by eight votes, its opponents totalling 35, while the Opposition Leader, with reinforcements from cross-benches, had a total of 27. The distribution of the cross-bench or Independent vote was watched keenly. Messrs R. A. AVright and C. A. Wilkinson voted with the Government and of the other elements in this divided group, Mr AA r . A. the North Island deputy-leader of the Democrats, made an early move into the lobby with Labour, soon followed by a reputed supporter, Mr A. J. Stallworthy. The amendment also won the support of Messrs H. Atmore, D. McDougall, H. M. Rushworth and A. M. Samuel. It was a thin House, the Labour Party having four members absent and the Government side thirteen. If these members are added to the division figures, it is demonstrated that the Government, on a general no-con-fidence could maintain its position with a majority of seventeen. The division list appears on page 9.