BILL PARTLY REWRITTEN

Southland Times, Issue 22999, 19 September 1936, Page 8

BILL PARTLY REWRITTEN

Countless Minor Alterations

COMMITTEE STAGES DEBATED MAJORITY OF CLAUSES PASSED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, September 18. A partial rewriting of tfie Mortgagors and Lessees Rehabilitation Bill was witnessed as the result of the introduction in the House of Representatives to-day of a long list of Government amendments. This was easily the most important, feature of the day’s proceedings, and with members in possession of all the amendments in the form of a Supplementary Order Paper, the House spent the whole day in giving further consideration in committee to the detailed provisions of the Bill. The amendments, which were introduced by Governor-General’s Message, are of fairly general importance. Perhaps the most notable are those restricting the sale of mortgaged properties concerning which applications for adjustment are made and extending the date by which applications must be filed from December 31 this year to January 31 next year. In addition, there are countless minor amendments and there will be hardly a page of the original Bill which will not undergo some alteration. Little Fresh Argument. The committee discussions during the day brought to light very little in the way of fresh argument. However, there was a fairly heated discussion on the attitude of the Government towards future appointments to the Court of Review and the various adjustment commissions, Opposition members holding that the Government had taken power to dismiss the existing officials, so that, it would be able to appoint its own friends and supporters.

Reasonably good progress was made with the committee discussions and by the time the House rose at 5.30 p.m. approval had been given to 46 out of the 84 clauses.

At the opening of the sitting some interest was caused by the attitude of the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) towards requests for introductions of private and local Bills, requiring the suspension of the Standing Orders owing to the fact that the session has been in progress for more than 42 days. Mr Savage said that next session the Government would insist on strict compliance with the Standing Orders, as it appeared that in some cases the rules of Parliamentary procedure were being ignored.