PARLIAMENT AT WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18174, 21 August 1922, Page 8

PARLIAMENT AT WORK.

INCIDENTS OF THE WEEK. DOMINION AND THE NAVY. PRIVATE MEMBERS' BILLS. SOCIAL WELFARE SCHEMES. [B J TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL XBPOBTBB.] WELLINGTON. Sfct-ard»y. The most important discussion in the House of representatives during the week was that which <-ook place on Friday evening upon Sir John Salmond's report on the Washington Conference on the limitation of amaments. The Prime Minister, in moving that the House should assent to the ratification of the Washington treaties, expressed the view that New Zealand should carry its Ml share of the burden of naval defence. He did not speak at great length on the Washington treaties and resolutions, but emphasised his entire concurrence jith Sir John Salmond's view of the consututional position of tha Domimocs a Washington. He further emphasisedthat, the result of the conference was not to remove the responsibility of the ions in tho matter of defence and he quoted an important memorandum from the Admiralty, setting out a plan ox action for tfew Zealand This was or the future, but ho stated plainly that New Zealand was now behindhand in the matter. I . n rp Tho Leader of the Opposition, Mr. 1. M. Wilford, seconded the motion, and made as his chief point the faot that the conference banished the fear of ii&v&l conflict between Great Britain and the United States, and had produced a paper peace which all hoped would m. tune be translated into actual peace. ... Mr. H. B. Holland, the Loader of the Labour Party, welcomed the results of the conference, but regretted that more had not been done to prevent war, and suggested thfc creation 01 an international army to prevent the nations going to war. The House agreed to the ratification oi' the treaties without any very decided opinions as to what New Zealand's contribution to naval defence 6hould be. A Member's Lapse. The glaring breach of privilege committed by Mr. J. McComb3 (Lyttelton) in circulating with his Proportional Representation and Country Quota Bill an explanatory memorandum, in whiih he suggested that the Boundary Commissioners had altered the boundaries of t!he Kaiapoi electorate in the interests of the Reform Party, led to an almost uripardonah!e waste of time in the House on Thursday. The point in the charge was that the member had misled the Speaker and an official of the House as to the contents of the memorandum, and Government members held that not only was this action wrong, but the memorandum itself was improper. Sir. McCombs was aggressively unrepentant, and he was supported by his Labour colleagues, -who held that there had been no intention to mislead, aad that the circulation of the memorandum in this manner was not a breach of privilege. The liberals, while not defending the action of the member lor Lyttelton, agreed that there had been no breach of privilege. The outstanding point in the whole dispute is that had the offending member circulated his explanatory document through the post, a method which he on more than. . one occasion iwas open to him, the members of the commission nigra have hie grounds for an action for libel. When" the House carried the motion of censure by 44 votes to 21, the Prime MinisterdecideJ not to carry the matter to the point of asking the House to inflict a fine, and Mr. McCombs seemed disap- • pointed. Welfare of tha Children. The House has had before it this week two Bills framed with the object of making better provision for the care and nourishment of the children of the country. The first of these, Mr. G. Mitchell's Child Sustenance Bill, was eventually ruled out by tha Speaker on xhe ground that it involved appropriation, but not before Labour members had expreesied their disapproval of its provisions. Iha reduction of the basic ~ wage for unmarried wtirkers was one of the proposals to which thtny objected, and they suggested in its steacl that a wage sufficient to support a man, his wife, and two children should still be paid to the single man. The extra payment due to the man with., more children than the basic wage would support comfortably was "to come out of the public cash-bos despite the repeated statement- by the Prime Minister that the box is empty. Mr. Mitchell had no need to meet these arguments in the face of . the Speaker's ruling. .. The second Bill was Mr. M J. Savage's Motherhood Endowment Bill, which aimed at giving every man, married or single, the basic wage calculated to support a * family of four, mothers being paid by the Government for any «sxtr& children. There - were objections from the Reform and Liberal benches than the Consolidated Fond could not stand such a drain, and one member went so. far as to suggtsst that if tho State undertook the support of the children it riiusfc exercise supervision over marriageo and sen that only healthy children wewi produced. Dr. Thacker (ChristchurchEasfc) approved of a babv bonus, and said that a duty of Id per ib, on the sugar used in the Dominion would provide much of the monoy required for the endowment of motherhood. His proposal had a. double purpose, for he stated that .if the tax reduced the consumption of/sugar, the health of the community would bepefit. The Bill passed its first reading', but is v not likely to go vary far. Economy and W*ste. Among its other economy measures the Government is restricting the amount of printing done for the House in the way of Bills said papers. It ia becoming increasingly difficult to get <»xtra copies of important papers, but several members this week complained that they had been unable to get copier! of the Budget, while the grievance of others wae that they were permitted to have only a very few copies of Bills which weto of special interest to * e ? The Hon. G. J. Anderson, »s Minister in charge of the Government Printing Office, explained inat the Legislative Department was now bemg charged with the cost of Bills and papers suppliod to the House. He was Y*, ave a surplus of such p pers printed and then destroyed and w° P?j ernm f nt *mub«A of wastefulw' • meaibera that if they would state their requirements within reason they would be met, and, at the TS t,'«Win ll +l ICa v. 6< l- i tth atct some members had •. been in the habit of asking for hundreds of copies of local Bills of particular inv * The reasonable limit which he now intends to impose w5 W lO that members IStS, Wl |\ have to devise some other rV? ♦w l s ent the Minister for lutein- that he proposed to ask the House to pass legislation making provision for the auditing of trade union accounta in the interests of the union members, caused a s ,ir among the Labour representatives. Naturally they were antagonistic to this F£»g, and hotiy asM if "> u r organisations a thief was a thief to be rapidly brouaht to account when caught tampering with the workers fighting funds. Pointed refer, race was made to the defalcations bv State servants and to the alleged failure of the Government to prosecute. If!®'' ... - . ' —