PARLIAMENTARY NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22710, 24 October 1935, Page 18

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS

NOTES FROM PRESS GALLERY (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, October 23. BANKING AMENDMENT BILL St. Andrew's Day, St. George's Day and St. Patrick's Day will be removed from the list of New Zealand bank holidays by the Banking Amendment Bill introduced and read a first time in the House of Representatives to-day. This has been designed to avert serious inconvenience to the business community. The Bill deals with a number of hanking administration matters, but it makes no alteration to the banking syßtem, for the most part containing several minor amendments to the Banking Act of 1908. For instance, the provisions authorising and governing the issue of bank notes by the trading banks, which are now obsolete, are repealed. The Bill defines the application of the principal Act to the Reserve Bank. It widens the nature of the offence of unlawfully defacing bank notes, and it repeals the" law relating to quarterly returns furnished by the trading banks and substitutes a provision requiring monthly returns to be made in accordance with the Reserve Bank Act. CONTROL OF ELECTRIC POWER A denial of the suggestions made in certain quarters that the Public Works Amendment Bill, introduced in the House of Representatives last night, contained drastic provisions relating to the control of hydro-electric supply was made tonight by the Minister of Public Works, Mr J. Bitchener. Mr Bitchener explained that the intention of the legislation was merely to consolidate and confirm the policy carried out by tha department for the last few years. It had been suggested that the Bill was designed to monopolise the electric supply from the Government generating stations. This was not the position by any means. The Minister had always been willing to co-operate with the existing power plants throughout the country, and, as he had stated recently in his Public Works Statement, the Government had subsidised such plants to a considerable extent where they were of value to the general system. It was felt, however, that in future any development of power plants should be carried on according to some definitely organised plan, and that in future generating plants of any type should be subjected to the same control by way of licensing as water plants are at the present time. The existing legislation might have been somewhat indefinite in this respect, and the intention of the present amendment was to confirm the administration of the Government in these matters. "It is difficult," said Mr Bitchener, " to understand how the apprehensions expressed in certain quarters in relation to the meaning of the Bill have arisen. There is certainly nothing hidden in the Bill and it serves only to confirm the present practice. These particular clauses are not very important, and, as I do not wish to delay the House at this late stage by any prolonged discussion, I intend to move that that part of the Bill relating" to electric power supply be deleted. The department wilj carry on its administration as in the past." THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY Regulations issued during the recess under the Agriculture (Emergency Powers) Act are validated by the Agriculture Emergency Regulations Confirmation Bill which was introduced by Governor-General's Message and read a first time in the House of Representatives to-day. The Act requires that all regulations made when Parliament is not in session must be validated at the first meeting of Parliament subsequent to their issue. The regulations confirmed by the Bill were published in a gazette on July 16 and July 18. They deal chiefly with the conditions relating to advances to suppliers of milk or cream for the purpose of making improvements to the dairying equipment. ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY REGULATIONS Hidden deeply in the "iii?erpretation" clause of the Public Works Amendment Bill now before Parliament Is a definition of " electric line " or electric line work " so wide as to encompass generating plant, substations and reticulation, and the effect of that definition will, if the Bill is passed with the other clauses and electric power supply regulations, give the Public Works Department the widest powers—to refuse permission for the operation of existing steam or other plant, to refuse permission for the installation of additional or uew plant, to give the Minister powei to revoke a permit at any time, to gi»e the Crown power to purchase plant, reticulation, etc., from power boards oi supply authorities at valuation without consideration to goodwill. It is the extreme elasticity which has been given the interpretation of " electric line '.' which proposes to confer such wide . owers Further in the section headed " Supply of Electrical Energy," there is proposed an amendment of the principal Act which apparently aims at giving the department authority to sell power, not on a basis to be agreed upon between the supply authorities and the department as was held to date, but " upon such terms and conditions as the Minister thinks fit." Considerable surprise has been created among the supply authorises at these provisions, and it is stated that the matter is being vigorously taken up by the Municipal Supply Authorities' Assc ciation.