COMING BUDGET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26542, 18 August 1947, Page 4

COMING BUDGET

LONG DEBATE LIKELY OTHER BUSINESS FOR HOUSE Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, Aug. 17. The presentation on Thursday night of the Budget and estimates of departmental expenditure will be the main event in the House of Representatives this week. This will be followed by the Financial Debate, and if the usual procedure is adopted it will be opened on Tuesday week by the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Holland. With the introduction of the Budget later than was originally expected, those who had previously held the opinion that the .Session would be a particularly short one have been obliged to revise their estimates as to its duration. Early in the session there were many who thought it would finish as soon as September, but present indications are that it will last until, the end of October, and might even run well into November. •End of Session It was suggested in one quarter today that the session would finish just in time to enable the Prime Minister Mr Fraser, to go to London in acceptance of the invitation to the wedding on November 20 of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Mountbatten. The financial debate is inevitably a protracted discussion, for progress with it is slow as each member is allowed to speak for an hour; It usually extends over four or five weeks, while consideration of votes on the estimates generally takes another 12 sitting days at the very least. Actually, the Budget is being -pre- ‘ sented this year only a week later than last, when it was introduced on August 15. Last year the session fin- ' ished on October 13, but as members were facing a general election they were naturally anxious to accelerate xhe passage of parliamentary business so that they could get away to their electorates as soon us possible. Much Legislation This session mpre legislation than usual has been passed by the House • before the financial debate. The Magistrate’s Courts Bill and the Industrial Conciliation and . Arbitration Amendment Bill are still away at the Statutes Revision Committee and the Labour Bills Committee respectively, but it is expected that the former Bill will be reported back to the House this week. Legislation still to be introduced includes the measure nationalising the coal resources of the Dominion, the Workers’ Compensation Amendment • Bill and a measure providing for more effective methods of checking forest fires. In addition, there will be the usual washing-up measures, and, according to the amendment adopted •during the debate on the Legislative Council Abolition Bill sponsored by the Opposition, it will be necessary also to introduce a measure this session providing for the adoption by New Zealand of the Statute of Westminster. Discussions are also to take place on the Licensing Qommission’s report and on the report of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, held at Bretton Wocils in 1944. In these circumstances, the business still awaiting the attention of Parliament is fairly formidable.