PARLIAMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21296, 24 September 1932, Page 13

PARLIAMENT

BRIEF SITTING HELD. SESSION PRELIMINARIES desire for business lIMITINCt first debate matter for members [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON, Friday Only brief sittings of the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives took place to-day, when tributes were paid to the memories of deceased legislator:?. It will not be until next week that the House will have a proper opportunity to show whether it is in working mood, or whether the time-wasting preliminaries of previous sessions are to be indulged in. The House has had a gentle initiation into the sessional routine. The sitting yesterday, winch was the opening day, occupied less than an hour, and to-day's' proceedings were completed in under two hours, the adjournment then being taken nnf.il Tuesday afternoon. Members' Short Stay Thus some members arrived in Wellington yesterday morning and left again for their homes this evening for a long ■wenk-end. However, the opening formalities customarily follow such a course, and it is perhaps more difficult than the average critic realises to crowd much business into the very early stages of .a session. A question was asked to-day which Shows that there is a desire in ofte section of the House at least that no time should be lost in getting down to business. Mr. A. E. Jull, who brings to his Parliamentary duties the refreshing outlook of a comparatively new member who has had local body experience, suggested in an urgent question to the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, that it might be desirable to fix a definite time for taking the decisive vote on the Ad ilrcss-m-Reply motion, to which the Labour Party has moved a no-confidenco amendment.

Mr. Jul], stated that the country xras anxious to know the contents of the National Expenditure Committee's final report, the nature of the Ottawa agreement and the proposals of the Budget, and there was little purpose in prolonging the Address-in-Reply debate, which ( will commence on Tuesday evening. Perhaps Labour members suspected . that Mr. Jull's question was inspired by happenings in the Coalition Paity s caucus this morning. At any rate, there were bursts of ironical laughter from the Opposition benches, whic% seemed to indicate that little co-operation might be expected from that quarter. Curtailment Welcomed Replying to Mr. Jull, Mr. Forbes said the answer to the question really rested with the members themselves. The Government was anxious to start the real business of the session as soon as possible, and it would welcome the curtailment of the debate. He would be pleased to confer with Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, to see whether arrangements could, be made to conclude the debate in reasonable time. There was another ripple of merriment from Labour benches, so it is fairly apparent that the Opposition desires to follow its weary old custom of allowing each member in its ranks to speak. However, it is still possible that sensible counsels will prevail, although-it is unlikely that next week will see the end of a debate which gives the singular opportunity. for making speeches on almost any subject under the sun. A flood of departmental reports was tabled to-day. The explanation lies in the fact that the session has begun almost three months behind the normal date, and reports which would normally nave been presented in ones and twos, have accumulated in forbidding piles. ASIATICS IN DOMINION repatriation sought ]WORK FOR NEW ZEALANDERS [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] "WELLINGTON, Friday The immediate repatriation of all 'Asiatics, particularly Chinese and Indiana, is sought m a petition bearing 1457 signatures, which was presented to the House of Representatives to-day by Mr. J. N. Massey (Government— Franklin). The chief reason advanced by the petitioners is '"in order that Asiatics may be replaced in their occupations by approximately. 10,000 to 12,000 of our own men and boys who are at present unable to earn a living." The petitioners estimate that there are about 6000 Chinese and Indians, mostly engaged in market gardening, resident in the Dominion. B RADIO STATION REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE PETITIONERS URGE SUBSIDY [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] ' WELLINGTON, Friday A plea for financial assistance to ensure the maintenance of the full broadcasting services until recently given y station IZR, Auckland, was made in petitions presented to the House to-day y Mr. M J. Savage and Mr. A. Harris on behalf of the Rev. C. G. Scrimgeour and 11 others, representing the IZR Kaciio Club. ® .. The petitioners desire that the station should lie given a share of the revenue collected by licence fees, or, alternatively, that approved* B stations should be permitted to broadcast any unlimited num _ her of sponsored programmes ot suliicient publicity value to defray the cos

of maintenance. - - It was explained that the station was established by Lewis Eady, Limited, in December, 1930. but an extension of the service had involved the firm in consi eiable expense, both in capital ou ay an upkeep, far in excess of that anticipated. The firm had been involved in a deadWeight loss of £IOOO to date. Following the Broadcasting Boa>rd s decision not to subsidise metropo a . stations, the directors of IZR had decided to reduce their loss by eliminating day sessions. However, the i ™ \ were very popular, and a 1S ® . formed in an endeavour to reta the full schedule of services from UK, had secured 2000 financial members in &en days.