STORK OF THE SESSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21819, 5 December 1932, Page 10

STORK OF THE SESSION

THE REMAINING BUSINESS ADJOURNMENT ON THURSDAY (From Ode Parliamentary Repoiteb.) WELLINGTON, December 4. Considerable savings in administration iind accountancy of loan moneys arc expected under the provisions of the New Zealand Loans Consolidation Bill which the Government will introduce into the House before the adjournment next Thursday. In its preliminary report last March the National Expenditure Commission drew attention to the ' fact that the Public- Account consisted of a number of separate funds and accounts in addition to the Consolidated Fund and the Public Works Fund. These ' separate accounts were created largely for the purposes of capital expenditure, and were established along with various developmental schemes and trading activities. The Treasury had urged that the simplification of these accounts would lead not only to economy in administration but would also enable the Treasury to work on a smaller bank cash balance. The commission recommended the abolition of separate accounts that were no longer essential, and suggested that legislation to this effect should be introduced by the Government. Its recommendation will apparently he fulfilled, at least in part, by the'Loans Consolidation Bill, which the Prime Minister (Mr G. W. Forbes) said yesterday would provide for the merging of separate accounts and would ' result in considerable savings by simplifying the accountancy of loans. Mr Forbes made it clear that the Government intends to adjourn the House next Thursday night irrespective of what progress it has made with the Bills on the Order Paper and* those still to be introduced, numbering about 25 in all. This means that a great deal of business will be held over until the end of January, and that when the House does resume it will have to deal with a host of minor measures as well as with emergency legislation framed by Cabinet in the interval. Allowing for the usual delays it seems probable, therefore, that the January session will extend over eight or 10 weeks at least, for in addition to new 1 legislation such highly controversial measures as the Electoral Amendment Bill, the Government Superannuation Funds Bill, and the Central Reserve Bank Bill will still remain on the Order Pa 0 P ? the 10 Bills which Mr Forbes stated in the House would be introduced before the adjournment probably several will now be withheld until the session is resumed. Mr Coates’s Small Farm Bill, for instance, is still m the hands of the law draughtsman, and has not so fja’ been even discussed by Cabinet. The chief provisions of this Bill, which aims to secure land for settlement by unemployed, have already been indicated. Not a great deal is known about the Education Amendment Bill, which is probably to be introduced on Tuesday, beyond that it gives legislative effect to several economies in administration already announced, and provides for the enrolment in primary schools of children at the beginning of the term in which they reach the age of six years. This change will .mean that children who reach the age of six in .March or April next will be allowed to attend schools ih February when they are reopened for the first term. The Reformatory Institutions Amendment Bill and the Property Law Amendment Bill are described as machinery measures. Amendments to property law, it is stated, have been necessitated by the changed conditions in the present difficult’ times. One of the principal reasons for the Government’s delay in adjourning the House once it had decided on that course was the need for time to prepare thp Appropriation Bill, the Supplementary Estimates, and the Finance Bill. The Finance Bill and the other two “washup” Bills—Local Legislation and Reserves and Other Lands Disposal—should be passed speedily, and probably urgency will be taken for the passage of the Estimates, although these, too, will represent a very much smaller amount than in recent years. It is interesting to observe that when the House adjourns after a session of 11 weeks, not a single Bill of major importance will have been passed except the Customs Acts Amendments consequent upon the Ottawa agreement. The Motueka by-election, and the Coalition caucus which culminated in the Government’s decision to adjourn both had an unsettling influence on the House during the past week, and not a great deal of progress was made. For the first time this session the closure was invoked to secure the passage of-a clause in the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Amendment Bill, a measure which fully aroused the Labour Party and led to a long and tedious debate. This Bill was ultimately passed together with the Urban Farm Lands Rating Bill, the Municipal Association Bill, and the Mortgagors and Tenants Further Relief Bill. On Friday, in spite of the Prime Minister’s appeal for the rapid disposition of the 33111 s on the Order Paper, the House spent practically the whole day on trivial subjects, and made no appreciable progress whatever. Whether the next few days will'see a more studious regard for the Government’s wishes remains to bo seen.