PARLIAMENT RESUMING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22475, 20 July 1936, Page 8

PARLIAMENT RESUMING

Parliament will resume its first session to-morrow. It already has behind it a body of legislation exceeding in importance that passed in any previous full session. Even so the Government's further proposals, if carried out, involve a heavy programme. Cabinet should seriously consider whether the work could not be lightened with advantage to all concerned. Some of the measures proposed are highly controversial and their details should have the closest attention. That cannot be given if they are to be forced through Parliament at high pressure. Time spent now may be time saved later on. The confusion caused by the rapid passage of laws, and the need for amendment in certain directions, is sufficiently exemplified already. The Government's first task now should be administration. Ministers are overloaded as it is by the new duties and responsibilities they have assumed. They must be beginning to realise that the heaviest of their labours is concerned. not with framing and passing laws, but with applying them after they are enacted. If their attention is again to be diverted from administration to legislation, the business of Government is bound to fall into arrears. In any case the public has had for the present as large a legislative meal as it can digest. If for the remainder of the session the Government is content to attempt less, it will probably achieve more.