PARLIAMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21148, 4 October 1930, Page 14

PARLIAMENT.

YESTERDAY’S PROCEEDINGS. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL (Peb Dsited Press Association.) WELLINGTON, October 3. The Legislative Council met at 2.30 p.m. to-day. NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY BILL. The Statutes Revision Committee recommended that the amendments made by the House in the New Zealand University Amendment Bill should not .be agreed to. BILLS ADVANCED. The Statistics Revision Committee reported 1 the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Bill' without amendment. The London and New Zealand Bank, Ltd., Amendment Bill was read a third time and passed. - NURSES AND MIDWIVES BILL. In moving the committal of the Nurses and Midwives Amendment Bill the Leader of the Council (Mr Masters) said the Bill was one of considerable importance. ' Its object was to allow mirses in private hospitals to be registered. - . Mr G. J. -Garland said there was not a tittle of evidence to show that the reciprocal arrangement between England and New Zealand would be interfered with. Dr W. E. Collins supported the Bill, which would be of great assistance to those people who were not able to pay the full charges. Mr A. S. Malcolm moved as an amendment that the Bill should be committed six months hence. After other members had' expressed their opinions regarding the Bill the debate was adjourned until Tuesday. The. Council adjourned at 6 p.m. until Tuesday. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. { ' 4 N (Peb ; United Press Association.) . WELLINGTON, October 3. ■ The House of Representatives met at 10:30 a.m. to-day, 'leave of, absence. Mr T. D. Burnett (Temuka) was granted two days’ leave, of absence on account of urgent public business. PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT. ' The Minister of Public Works (Mr W. B. Taverner) presented the Public Works Statement, and the Public Works estimates were transmitted to the House by Governor-General’s Message. THE ESTIMATES. The House went into Committee of Supply to deal with the Estimates. Consideration of the vote of £2,828,141 for the Poet Office vote was resumed with further discussion. on the amendment by Hr M. J. Savage (Auckland West) to reduce the vote by £lO as an indication ;hat in the opinion of the House salaries n the department should be fixed by ;he process of arbitration. Mr D. Jones (Mid-Canterbury) said hat Mr Savage had advocated the settlenent of salaries and wages in thedepartlent by process of arbitration, but he had tot specified any " process. Members 1 vould desire a clearer 'indication of vhat they were asked to vote for. The Postmaster-General (Mr J. B. Donald) said he realised that it would ie desirable to place the salaries in the lepartment beyond parliamentary consol- He would investigate the methods :hat had been suggested. The amendment was rejected by 30 to 25. . . ...... Mr A. Harris (Waitemata) moved to reduce the vote by £9 as a protest igainst the Government’s failure to give ;ffect to the recommendations of the M :o Z Public Petitions Committee in the jasea of L. C. Rains and. others (the Auckland telegraph office employees dismissed on charges of divulging information). He asked all members who disapproved of the system of tapping telephones and spying to support the amendment, and he further complained that Cabinet had failed to grant justice to the men concerned. Mr Savage supported the views expressed by Mr Harris. v Mr R. Semple (Wellington East) stated that even if the men had committed an offence, the punishment had been unduly severe. He contended that there was no satisfactory evidence that Rains had committed any offence. The debate on the amendment moved by Mr Harris was continued for the remainder of the morning. - Mr.F, Lye (Waikato) expressed the opinion, that a substantial fine would have met the cage instead of dismissal. He suggested that the Minister should undertake that Cabinet’s decision would be reviewed. He could “tlo this without committing himself to a promise that the men would be reinstated. The House adjourned at 1 p.m.

AFTERNOON SESSION,

• The House of Representatives resumed at 2.30 p.m. Mr P. Fraser (Wellington Central) said it should be clearly understood that the magistrate had not inflicted the punishment. He felt certain that the magistrate had not anticipated that dismissal would follow finding the men guilty.

Mr H. M. Rushworth (Bay of Islands) said that to his mind the most important issue before the House was whether the - Government had given due consideration to the findings of the Select Committee, and whether it would give due consideration to the findings of other select committees in future. Mr W. E. Barnard (Napier) agreed that the House was entitled to expect greater consideration from Cabinet in view of such a strong recommendation trom the Select Committee. .

After further discussion the amendment was put to a vote and was defeated by 32 to 30, The division list was as follows; For the Amendment (30). Armstrong M'Keen Barnard Macmillan Blaeii Martin Carr. ' Massey , Chapman Munro Dickie Nash. W. Fletcher O’Brien £raser Rushworth Hall _ Samuel Hama Savage Jordan , Semple Kyle Sullivan Langstone Waite Dye , Wilkinson 3M Combs Wright Against the Amendment (32), Ansell Linklater Atmore - M'Donald Bitchener Macpherson Eroadfoot Makitanara Clinkard Munns Cobbe Murdoch de la Perrelle Nash, J. A. Donald Ngata Endean Poison Hamilton Smith Hawke Sykes Healy Taverner Henare Veitch Hogan Ward Holland, H, Williams Jones Young Pairs.—For the Amendment: Messrs Parry and Howard. Against the Amendment: Messrs Stallworthy and Ransom. The amendment having been disposed • of, Mr J. A. Nash (Palmerston) asked ■what the Government -was doing to assist B grade broadcasting stations. It was stated that the Government had entered into an arrangement with the Copyright Association for the purpose of protecting the New Zealand Broadcasting Association. There was

quite a large number of second grade stations in the Dominion, and new ones were constantly opening up, and they were not welcomed by the Broadcasting Association. If it were possible to put them oS the air the Broadcasting Association would do so. The Copyright Association was demanding 4d for every copyrighted item which was broadcast, and as the B grade stations had no income the charge created a great hardship. All they had to rely on was the annual subscription of 6s from listeners-in, and unless they were given some protection they would .be compelled to close down because of the copyright charges. The B grade stations, which had been on the air longer than the YA stations were. not permitted to earn any revenue, Mr C. Carr (Timaru) declared that m New Zealand the listening-in license fee was the highest in the world, and the service was the worst in the world, Mr C. A. Wilkinson (Egmont) protested against expenditure in the form of a subsidy to the San Francisco and Vancouver mall services, and moved that the sum be reduced by £8 as a protest against a continuance of ! the arrangement.

The Postmaster-General (Mr J. B. Donald) said he regarded the charge of 4d for each side of a disc broadcast as outrageous. If it were possible for the Government to do anything to prevent such charges he would be pleased to take such action. He believed that there was room for the B class stations as well'as the major stations, and their interests would be conserved in the new regulations which he hoped would be brought into force as well as those of flip . m ajor stations. Continuing, the Minister said he believed we should, be getting something better in the way of programmes, and it was his intention to try and see that that state of affairs was brought about. A new arrangement was being planned, and he believed that it was introduced the people of New Zealand would be very well pleased with the results. It would take some time to be completed, but it certainly ought to be ready by the time Parliament assembled next year. The Post-master-General added, in "reply to another question, that he felt sure the of New Zealand did not want advertising on the air. Referring to Mr Wilkinson’s amendment Mr Donald said the mail services via San Francisco and Vancouver had been valuable, but he agreed that now we were getting better and faster services via Panama canal the English mail might very well be sent via that route,, and he hoped shortly to be able to call tenders with that object in view. He hardly thought it would be possible to do without the San Francisco and Vancouver services, however, but it was another question whether the Dominion should continue to pay as much by way of subsidy. He stated that Canada, Fiji and the Society Islands I also paid a subsidy, while Australia contributed in the form of mail rates. Mi Wilkinson said that in view of the Minister’s satisfactory reply he wished to. withdraw his amendment, and this .course was taken. The post office estimates were still under consideration when progress was reported. Mr Fraser, rising to a point of order, said that by mistake the name of the Leader of the Labour Party had no;, been recorded as voting for the amendment moved by Mr Harris. The division list was thereupon amended to read: For the amendment, 31; against the amendment, 32. The House adjourned at 5.30 p.m. till 2.30 p.m. on Monday.