PARLIAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 21855, 4 November 1932, Page 8

PARLIAMENT

BILLS DISCUSSED PRIVATE MEMBERS’ e MEASURES REGULATION OF CURRENCY (From Our Parliamentary Reporter). Wellington, November 3. Consideration of private members’ bills was continued in the House of Representatives to-day, but the whole of to-morrow will be spent in consideration of the Estimates. Two Bills were reported back from the Labour Bills Committee to the House to-day, the Ohai Railways Board Bill being slightly amended without materially altering its provisions as ' previously outlined, and the Christchurch City (Abattoirs) Empowering Bill being returned without amendments. The Wellington City Empowering and Amendment Bill was read a second time without discussion. The Silver and Copper Coinage Bill which was introduced by Mr C. A. Wilkinson was ruled out of order as it involved appropriation, but Mr Wilkinson was given* permission to move the second reading. He urged the Government to take the Bill up and put it through and reiterated his arguments of last session in favour of New Zealand adopting a coinage of her own. Several other members also spoke in support of the measure and then it was struck off the Order Paper. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill (No. 2) which was introduced by Mr J. McCombs after his first Bill was defeated, was next proceeded with. Mr Speaker said that it appeared likely that the Bill might interfere with industrial agreements existing between the Government and some of its employees, but the Bill was allowed to proceed, Mr Speaker stating that the matter could be considered by a committee of the whole House, if the Bill reached that stage. Labour members continued the debate during the rest of the afternoon and argued that the Government should allow the Bill to become law because without it the present industrial arrangement would lead to trouble. The debate was interrupted at 5.30. The second reading was defeated by 41 votes to 25 early in the evening and the Shops and Offices Amendment Bill (Mr P. Fraser) was read a second time pro forma and referred to the Labour Bills Committee. The House then proceeded to the second reading of the Currency Bill (Mr H. G. R. Mason). The bill was substantially the same as that introduced a year ago, Mr Mason said, and proposed to vary the amount of money in circulation. He claimed that the central problem of to-day was variation in the purchasing power of money and said that the bill would correct this. The bill proposed to apply the simple law of supply and demand to the value of money. If there were an increase in the amount of money in circulation, the value of money would decrease, or in other words the price of goods would go up. On the other hand, if there were a decrease in the amount of money, the reverse would apply. It would thus be possible by regulating the amount of money in circulation to prevent either inflation or deflation. The debate was continued until the House adjourned at 11.30 until 10.30 to-morrow.