BUSY PERIOD EXPECTED

Southland Times, Issue 23297, 6 September 1937, Page 4

BUSY PERIOD EXPECTED

Second Session Of Parliament TWO MEETINGS OF CABINET POSSIBLE ITEMS IN PROGRAMME (Special to The Times) WELLINGTON, September 5. Members of the New Zealand Legislature, in both the House of Representatives and the Legislative Council are confronted with a busy period during the next few months. The second session of the present Parliament will open on Thursday and, quite apart from routine business, there is a heavy programme ahead. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) returned to Wellington from the South Island tour yesterday and Cabinet meetings have been arranged for tomorrow and Tuesday when the final plans for the session will be made. There will also be a caucus of the Government party on Wednesday, the main purpose being to inform members of the programme ahead. Only formal business will be dealt with by Parliament after the opening ceremonies this week but next Tuesday work will star'; in earnest with the Imprest Supply Bill. The Address-in- I Reply debate will begin the following day and may be fairly protracted. Al- ' though the Government’s aim is to have the Budget introduced as early as possible the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) has been busy since his return to New Zealand preparing his second financial statement but it is too early yet to state when it is likely to make its appearance. FAIR RENTS ACT Discussing possible items in the Government’s legislative programme yesterday Mr Savage said early attention would be given to the re-enactment of the Fair Rents Act which was still urgently needed in most districts and to an amendment to the industrial legislation closing the gap in the law recently revealed by the decision of the Court of Appeal about the position of clerical workers. Another bill would repeal the four-year Parliamentary term introduced by the previous Government. The Prime Minister also mentioned the possibility of amending legislation to liberalize in certain directions the granting of State Advances loans for the purposes of homebuilding. He said the housing scheme, with the provision of rental dwellings, could not overcome the whole problem and it might be desirable to assist people who wanted to build their own homes by granting loans with smaller deposits than were required under the existing legislation. The Prime Minister also mentioned the possibility of amendments to some of last session’s industrial acts in addition to new legislation dealing with apprentices. However, he was unable to say what specific points would receive attention. Legislation would also be necessary to give effect to the Government’s defence proposals as announced recently by the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) and it appeared that some legal status would have to be given to the proposed National Defence Council and the Army and Air Boards.