PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16495, 30 July 1924, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

“WHERE DO WE COME IN?”

(Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. “Where do we came in?” was, what the people outside Government employment.have been asking since attention has been called by the recent railway strike to the value of the superannuation fund, was the Hon. J. A. Hainan's remark in speaking to a motion to introduce the. Local Authorities Superannuation Amendment Bill hv the Hon. R. F. Bollard. Mr. Hunan said that on the actuarial: report on the financial condition of the various schemes brought into operation by local bodies, he wondered how long outside people would be called upon to make lip contributions by way of State subsidies. A searching investigation was required. The Government- should take some steps in regard to a national or social insurance scheme.

Mi*. Lystiar said he thought schemes as they existed to-day were- too heavy a drain upon the Government-.' and lie urged some readjustment, before they broke down.

Mr. Holland urged the- Minister to insert a clause in' the Bill to the effect that- any superannuation under the measuso shall not affect old age pensions. The lion. R. F. Bollard said the Bill was short, comprising only two clauses. One clause was inserted with the idea of giving power to the contributor and to the local body to reduce the retiring allown.iidi' in -order to increase the- annuity to the' widow on the deatli of a contributor. The second clause amended the existing law, in order that there should lie no reduction in the amount of retiring • allowance! on account of compensation received under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The Bill was read a first time. MAORT TANGI: NO PROHIBITION.

“Ta-ngi,” simply means ‘weeping,’ and it is no more- possible to- stop weeping than you could make people fly,” was a statement of Sir Maui Pomare; Minister of Uealth, when Mr. Urn called his attention to the action of the Health Department in. prohibiting a- Maori tangi near Christchurch, the district health officer being reported to say that (he Department, would put its foot down in such matters. The Minister explained that he was not dealing with a .specific ease, but in general. There were certain things from a public health standpoint- which Maori and pakehn had to consider, and he thought the Maori conformed pretty well to the laws of hygiene. There- was no intention to do away with tnngis, but only to protect the community in cases of infectious disease. The Maori Councils’ Act had limited the duration of these gatherings by providing for burial within three days, though at one time - taitgis went on for three weeks or a month. In this Maoris were not peculiar, for it was said that the Hebrews from whom the' pakelia borrowed his religion, wept for Moses 40 days and 40 nights.