“SHUT UP SHOP!”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18252, 22 November 1933, Page 7

“SHUT UP SHOP!”

WORK OF THE SESSION LABOR MEMBER’S PLAN ELECTIONS IN AUGUST (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Electioneering optimism, and suggestions for the clearing off of Parliamentary business post haste, provided bright interludes in Mr. E. J. Howard’s Budget speech in the House yesterday. The member for Christchurch South described a conversation with a Christchurch business man who anxiously inquired when Parliament was going to close down, adding: “If you would only shut- up shop, I believe the people would start trading, but they are afraid of what is> going to happen as a result of : this Budget.” “I suggest,” continued Mr. Howard, “that we put through the main bills as quickly as we can, getting them through without rushing matters, and that the House be called togther in March to deal with necessary legislation and go. to the country in August.” ' Mbmb£rs: Why'wait till August? Mr. Howard: I see members' slowly creeping away fpom the Government as they realise what is taking place in the country, and I can see some hungry eyes looking at the cross-benches, where they will soon be if nothing happens. There were 10 on the cross-benches now, ho explained, and six more had hungry eyes on them. Mr. J. Linklater (Coal., Manawatu) Who is optimistic now? Mr. Howard: I am, because I believe that the Government, if it went to the country, would be thrown out, and We could then go ahead again. (Laughter.) The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates: 1 think the hon. gentleman is wrong. He should put the country first, not the ment.

Mr. Howard declared that there was enough legislation on the Statute Book to. keep going a country 10 times the size, “and I believe that if Labor came into power it would not need to put any law on the Statute Book for the next five years,” he added. Mr. Coates: Will you give that guarantee? Mr Howard: lam not going to give a guarantee, but I do say that wo do not need to pass any more legislation to bring this country into a prosperous future.