PARLIAMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 30 July 1924, Page 5

PARLIAMENT

LOCAL BODIES SUPERANNUATION BILL \ (From our Parliamentary Correspondent) WELLINGTON,. This Day. i The Local Authorities Superannuation Bill produced yesterday provides that a contributor and a local body may reduce tho retiring allowance in order to increase the annuity to the widow on the death of the contributor. Another clause amends the existing law to prowide that no reduction shall be made in the amount of a retiring allowance on account of compensation receivable under the Workers’ Compensation Act. When the Local Bodies Superannuation Amendment Bill was being introduced to-day the Labour members urged that more adequate provisions should be made for superannuating local body employees. They also contended that the Government should introduce a scheme of superannuation to apply to all workers. Mr Wilford said it was better to accept a partial scheme at that stage than none at all. While they might all wish to see a superannuation scheme applied to all, it would be found impracticable to do so because so much casual labour was employed. No Government could ’formulate a general scheme right away. The Bill was read a first time. PAYMENT OF SALARIES Replying to a question in the House this afternoon Mr Massey said the system of paying civil servants fortnightly would be introduced as soon as the necessary arrangements for the change could be made. OPPOSITION TO GAMING BILL . , WELLINGTON, 7ms Day. What transpired in the House this afternoon indicates that the Gaming Bill is not likely to receive a smooth passage through the Legislature, if it gets through at all. Hon. R. F. Bollard moved for leave to introduce the Bill, and Labour at once seized the opportunity to talk to the motion. There was iittle of interest in their arguments, inasmuch as most of the contentions were ■old. But chief interest lay in the very cfear evidence that there is hostility to the Bill. Labour, with the' assistance of Mr Isitt, was still in possession of tho floor when the House had to adjourn at 5.30; and this meant that for to-day the Bill was talked out. No doubt Mr Bollard will bring the Bill on again and eventually get it in; but determined opposition must now be expected.

TANGIS NOT TO BE ABOLISHED

It is not tKe intention of the Health Department to abolish the holding of tangis by Maoris. A reply to this effect was given by Sir M. Pomare to Mr Uru to-day. “Tangi simply means a weeping,” stated the Minister, “and you can no more stop people from weeping than you can make them fly.” The Leader of the Opposition: “Individually or collectively. ’ (Laughter.) “That is so,’ ’replied the Minister. “•'The matter is simply arrant nonsense. There are, of course, certain things which we have to control from the public health standpoint, and we of tho Maori race have to recognise tlntt. There were certain parts of tho tangi custom which might not be altogether Hygienic, but he thought that the Maori people bad conformed to hygienic principles in this matter iri the last few years. The Maori Councils Act provided that a body could not be he_ld for more than three days. At one time a tangi used to last for three weeks or a month., “It is not peculiar to the Maori, remarked the Minister with a smile. ‘Apparently the Hebrew, from whom the pakeha borrowed his religion, wept over Moses: for forty days and forty nights. AGRICULTURAL BANK Mr Wilford’s agricultural bank proposal was criticised by Hon. C. J. Parr in the House last night. Mr Wilford proposed that the money for the should be raised at SJ, per cent. Hus would mean the bank would have to got 6 per cent, or 65 per cent., and how could it compete with the State Advances Oflico on those terms? DOMINION’S PUBLIC DEBT WELLINGTON, This Day. “Tho public debt of this country stands at £550,000,000; carried by a population of I 3 million people, Hon. 0. J. Parr during the financial debate last night. The Minister said his figures included borrowing by local bodies, who, he urged, should pursue a far more prudent policy in this respect, confining their borrowing principally to drainage, waterworks, and perhaps tramway extensions.