PARLIAMENT.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2004, 21 December 1921, Page 4

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Last Night The Legislative Council met at 2.30 p.m. The Mortgages and Deposits Extension Dill was received from the House and read a first time. STANDING ORDERS. Sir Francis Cell moved the adoption' of the new Standing Orders. Tiie Hons. Earnshaw and Cohen objected to the power to use the closure. Sir Thomas Mackenzie felt that the opportunity should be given to every member to speak. The use of the closure in England had led to abuses. He moved the deletion of the clauses giving this power. The Hon. O. Samuel, who had compiled the new orders, said the power proposed was less than was contained in tiie old Orders.

The amendment was lost by 25 votes to 3, and the motion was adopted.

Mr Speaker publicly thanked the Hon. O. Samuel for his work and said the Council now had a set of Standing' Orders that were probably better than those of any other self-governing ominion.

The Wellington City Empowering Bill, enabling the Corporation to issue a loan at (i instead of 6i per cent, was put through all its stages, and was xmssed.

MORTGAGES EXTENSION. Sir Francis Bell moved the second reading of the Mortgages and Deposits Extension Bill. He said he did not want the Government to bear any odium in connection with the changes made in the original Bill. Eet there be no mistake, however, about the fact that the Government was no more convinced than its Attorney-General, that its proposals were not far better than those in the Bill now before the Council. The proposals now before the Council would fairly meet the position, although they would not meet the objections made to the previous legislation. He had felt it an immense compliment that those who objected the Bill of 1921 had nothing better to fall back upon than his own Act of 1919.